Characterization of the relationship between polar and lateral flagellar genes in clinical Aeromonas dhakensis: Phenotypic, genetic and biochemical analyses
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
6-1-2021
Abstract
Flagellar-mediated motility is a crucial virulence factor in many bacterial species. A dual flagellar system has been described in aeromonads; however, there is no flagella-related study in the emergent human pathogen Aeromonas dhakensis. Using 46 clinical A. dhakensis, phenotypic motility, genotypic characteristics (flagellar genes and sequence types), biochemical properties and their relationship were investigated in this study. All 46 strains showed swimming motility at 30 degrees C in 0.3% Bacto agar and carried the most prevalent 6 polar flagellar genes cheA, flgE, flgG, flgH, flgL, and flgN. On the contrary, only 18 strains (39%) demonstrated swarming motility on 0.5% Eiken agar at 30 degrees C and they harbored 11 lateral flagellar genes lafB, lafK, lafS, lafT, lafU, flgCL, flgGL, flgNL, fliEL, fliFL, and fliGL. No association was found between biochemical properties and motility phenotypes. Interestingly, a significant association between swarming and strains isolated from pus was observed (p = 0.0171). Three strains 187, 277, and 289 isolated from pus belonged to novel sequence types (ST522 and ST524) exhibited fast swimming and swarming profiles, and they harbored > 90% of the flagellar genes tested. Our findings provide a fundamental understanding of flagellar-mediated motility in A. dhakensis.
Keywords
Aeromonas dhakensis, Flagellar, Lateral, Polar, Swarming, Swimming
Divisions
fac_med
Funders
Universiti Malaya (UMRG RP039B-15HTM)
Publication Title
Brazilian Journal of Microbiology
Volume
52
Issue
2
Publisher
Springer
Publisher Location
ONE NEW YORK PLAZA, SUITE 4600, NEW YORK, NY, UNITED STATES