Vibrio parahaemolyticus

A Microbial Biorealm page on the genus Vibrio parahaemolyticus

Classification

Scanning electron micrograph of Vibrio parahaemolyticus Obtained from the CDC Public Health Image Library. Image credit: CDC/Janice Carr (PHIL #6934), 2005.

Higher order taxa

Bacteria (domain); Proteobacteria (phylum); Gammaproteobacteria (class); Vibrionales (order); Vibrionaceae (family); Vibrio (genus); Vibrio parahaemolyticus (species)

Species

NCBI: Taxonomy

Vibrio parahaemolyticus

Description and significance

Vibrio parahaemolyticus is a gram negative bacterium that is typically found in warm estuarine seawaters due to its halophilic (salt-requiring) characteristics. It is the number one leading cause of sea-food associated bacterial gastroenteritis in the United States.

V. parahaemolyticus causes diarrhea upon ingestion. While the overwhelming majority of people acquire the infection by eating raw or undercooked seafood (particularly shellfish and oysters), an open wound exposed to warm seawater can facilitate V. parahaemolyticus infection.

Isolation of V. parahaemolyticus is possible from cultures of stool, wound, or blood. Isolation from stool preferably involves a medium that contains thiosulfate, citrate, bile salts, and sucrose (TCBS agar).

Genome structure

Shotgun sequencing of Vibrio parahaemolyticus AQ3810 is unfinished. To this date, 2 plasmids (pO3K6 and pSA19) and 2 chromosomes (chromosome I and chromosome II) are completely sequenced. The importance of plasmids to the organism's lifestyle is unknown at this point.

Vibrio parahaemolyticus AQ3810 (unfinished)
DNA structure: other
Length: 5,771,228 nt
Replicon Type: chromosome
Created: 2007/01/11

Vibrio parahaemolyticus plasmid pO3K6, complete sequence
DNA structure: circular
Length: 8,784 nt
Replicon Type: plasmid
Replicon Name: pO3K6
Created: 2000/06/29

Vibrio parahaemolyticus plasmid pSA19, complete sequence
DNA structure: circular
Length: 4,839 nt
Replicon Type: plasmid
Replicon Name: pSA19
Created: 1996/05/23

Vibrio parahaemolyticus RIMD 2210633 chromosome II, complete sequence
DNA structure: circular
Length: 1,877,212 nt
Replicon Type: chromosome
Replicon Name: II
Created: 2003/03/10

Vibrio parahaemolyticus RIMD 2210633 chromosome I, complete sequence
DNA structure: circular
Length: 3,288,558 nt
Replicon Type: chromosome
Replicon Name: I
Created: 2003/03/10

Cell structure and metabolism

Describe any interesting features and/or cell structures; how it gains energy; what important molecules it produces.

Ecology

Describe any interactions with other organisms (included eukaryotes), contributions to the environment, effect on environment, etc.

Pathology

How does this organism cause disease? Human, animal, plant hosts? Virulence factors, as well as patient symptoms.

V. parahaemolyticus is the leading cause of seafood-associated gastroenteritis in the United States. Human ingestion of V. parahaemolyticus causes various symptoms, including diarrhea, abdominal cramping, myalgias, self-reported fever, headache, vomiting, diarrhea with mucus, and bloody diarrhea (McLaughlin et al., 2005)

Virulence factors. Thermostable direct hemolysin (encoded by tdh) and thermostable direct-related hemolysin genes, which occur in more than 90% of clinical strains of V. parahaemolyticus but less than 1% of environmental isolates (McLaughlin et al., 2005). More specifically, V. parahaemolyticus serotype O3:K6 isolate were found to possess the thermalstable direct hemolysin gene using polymerase chain reaction (Daniels et al., 2000).