Lateral Flagella of Vibrios: Serological Classification and Genetical Similarity

Abstract

Lateral (L-) flagella-having vibrios were classified into 13 H-serogroups (flagellar antigen serogroups) by means of H-agglutination test. Vibrio parahaemolyticus was classified into 3 serogroups, HL1 to 3. V. alginolyticus and V. harveyi were classified into 5 and 3 serogroups, respectively, but 2 of those were serogroups common to the both species. V. fluvialis and V. furnissii constituted a same serogroup, HL8. Cross-reactivity between each serogroup was not observed in H-agglutination test, although some cross-reactivity was observed in gel diffusion test. Furthermore, similarity of DNA sequence of L-flagellar structure gene was demonstrated by dot blot hybridization test with a DNA probe of HL2 L-flagellar gene fragment. These results suggest conservation of DNA sequence of the L-flagellar gene of vibrios.

Bacteria that express lateral flagella enable dissection of the multifunctional roles of flagella in pathogenesis

“…It is a primary cause of seafood‐associated food poisoning worldwide. Lateral flagella have also been described on about seven other Vibrio species (some of which have a similar disease spectrum to V. parahaemolyticus ) [4], as well as only a small number of other bacterial species. These species are Rhodospirillum centenum (a purple photosynthetic bacterium) [5], Azospirillum spp.…”

Vibrio fluvialis: an emerging human pathogen

“…Tassin et al (1983) and Shinoda et al (1984) demonstrated independently that anti- L -flagella antisera of V. fluvialis did not agglutinate other Vibrio species in the H-agglutination tests. Further studies placed V. fluvialis and V. furnissii in the same lateral flagellar serogroup-HL8 (Shinoda et al, 1992). However, in practice, serotyping based on H-flagella is also not in use.…”

Roles of the second messenger c‐di‐GMP in bacteria: Focusing on the topics of flagellar regulation and Vibrio spp.

“…In addition, the V. campbellii genome encodes genes that are homologous to V. parahaemolyticus lateral flagellar genes for swarming motility. However, only a few strains express these genes with little phenotypic or genetic characterization (Allen & Baumann, 1971;Shinoda et al, 1992). It has been shown that the regulatory hierarchy of V. campbellii transcription of the flagellar and chemotaxis genes is similar to that of other Vibrio spp.…”