Mutation of a novel virulence-related gene mltD in Vibrio anguillarum enhances lethality in zebra fish

Vibrio anguillarum, a halophilic Gram-negative bacterium, is the causative agent of vibriosis, which is a major problem for the aquaculture industry worldwide. Previously, a virulence-related gene fragment of V. anguillarum was obtained from a suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH) library. In this study, the complete gene sequence was obtained by long and accurate PCR (LA-PCR). After sequence analysis and homologous comparison, this new virulence-related gene was revealed to encode a putative membrane-bound lytic murein transglycosylase D (MltD), which consisted of 547 amino acids, and showed 34% identity to the MltD in Escherichia coli. An mltD mutant of pathogenic V. anguillarum CW-1 was constructed by homologous recombination. Production of extracellular gelatinase and protease of the mltD mutant decreased markedly compared with those of the wild-type strain, and the hemolytic activity was totally lost. Sodium chloride challenge and antibiotic sensitivity assay showed that the resistance of the mltD mutant to high concentrations of sodium chloride, and rocephin, fortun, cefobid, gentamicin, kanamycin and carbenicillin was enhanced. Most importantly, virulence of the mltD mutant was enhanced compared with that of the wild type when it was inoculated intraperitoneally into zebra fish; the LD50 of the wild type and the mutant was 3.92 × 103 CFU and 1.01 × 102 CFU fish−1, respectively. The mltD was cloned and overexpressed in E. coli, and the recombinant MltD protein showed hemolytic, phospholipase, gelatinase and diastase activities. This is the first report that MltD possibly has a virulence-related function.