Establishment of a Caenorhabditis elegans infection model for Vibrio alginolyticus

Abstract

Vibrio alginolyticus, a common bacterium in the marine environment, is a threat to marine animals and humans by causing serious infections. The present study reveals the establishment of a Caenorhabditis elegans infection model for Vibrio alginolyticus. The infection and colonization was localized in the animal by tagging V. alginolyticus with GFP and using Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy. Chemotactic response of C. elegans to V. alginolyticus, pharyngeal distention and blockage of vulval region leading to internal hatching were analyzed. The time required for causing infection, and the bacterial loads in the intestine of C. elegans were determined. Regulation of innate immune related genes, lys-7, clec-60 and clec-87, were also analyzed using real time PCR. The pathogen infected animals appeared to ward-off infection by up-regulating the candidate antimicrobial gene(s) for few hours, before succumbing to the pathogen. For the first time, the pathogenicity of V. alginolyticus at both physiological and molecular level has been studied in detail using the model organism C. elegans.

Proteomic investigation of Vibrio alginolyticus challenged Caenorhabditis elegans revealed regulation of cellular homeostasis proteins and their role in supporting innate immune system

“…XBP‐1, a transcription factor involved in the UPR is reported for its role in C. elegans larval development against P. aeruginosa infection by protecting C. elegans against ER stress generated by the innate immune system . V. alginolyticus infection initiates an immune response in C. elegans and we hypothesize the expression of PDI‐2 to be correlated with XBP‐1 in protecting C. elegans against the ER stress and to maintain cellular homeostasis. Evidence for the role of Fenneropenaeus chinensis PDI genes in innate immune response against V. anguillaram was elucidated recently .…”

Ultraviolet-A triggers photoaging in model nematode Caenorhabditis elegans in a DAF-16 dependent pathway

“…In a recent study, it was proved that worms show no chemotaxis towards ethanol (Patananan et al 2015). Our group has previously reported that C. elegans avoid Vibrio alginolyticus (Durai et al 2011) whereas it gets attracted to Cronobacter sakazakii (Sivamaruthi et al 2011), which may be by the alteration of serotonin transporter (Sivamaruthi et al 2015a). When nematodes where exposed to UV-A, there was no significant change in the rate of chemotaxis behavior (data not shown).…”

“…The intensity profile of GFP was read using the Zen software provided with the microscope (Durai et al 2011). …”

Role of Indole Production on Virulence of Vibrio cholerae Using Galleria mellonella Larvae Model

“…causing gastrointestinal tract infections. However, due to ethic complaints, Dictystelium discoideum (soil-living amoeba) or Caenorhabditis elegans (nematode), have been selected for V. cholerae and V. alginolyticus infection models [3,18]. In this work, Galleria mellonella caterpillars were used to investigate the virulence of V. cholerae by comparing the wild type and an indole negative mutant.…”