Structural genomics studies of Vibrio salmonicida
V. salmonicida, a psychrophilic curved gram-negative rod bacterium with 3-9 polar flagella, is the causative agent of cold-water vibriosis (also called hemorrhagic syndrome or Hitra disease) in Atlantic salmon.
V. salmonicida elicits tissue degradation, haemolysis and sepsis in vivo.
V. salmonicida is primarily a disease of Atlantic salmon, but it has also been encountered in farmed rainbow trout and Atlantic cod. Although
V. salmonicida is an opportunistic pathogen, it is still highly specific (infects cod, but has a fifty times preference for salmon). Vaccines are shown to be efficient against pathogens such as
V. salmonicida, but the molecular mechanisms of host invasion and specificity, colonisation and growth are largely unknown.
The aim of the project is to determine the 3D-dimensional structure of a significant number of proteins encoded by the genome of
V. salmonicida. The structural genomics studies on this organism carried out by NorStruct, is one of several approaches to the
genomic studies on V. salmonicida, including whole genome sequencing, proteomics, RNAomics, etc. The targets so far selected for structural studies are based on our interests in DNA modification/regulation, cold adaptation and pathogenesis.
Sequencing of the genome of V. salmonicida is ongoing, and while awaiting the entire sequence targets for the structural genomics project have been selected and isolated using a sequence alignment and PCR strategy. A large-insert genomic BAC (bacterial artifical chromosomes) library has been made of the
V. salmonicida genome, and many of the full lenght target sequences have been identified by sequencing the entire genome-insert of the BAC-clones. Some of the latest targets (e.g. genes encoding hypothetical proteins) have thus been selected based on known genome sequences.
The selected target proteins may be divided into five different groups:
A: Proteins involved in the oxidative stress system
B: Nucleases
C: DNA-repair proteins
D: Hypothetical proteins
E: Potential virulence factors