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Emily Mantilla Bench B 31/08/2016

Classification

Higher order taxa

Prokaryote – Bacteria – Firmicutes – Negativicutes – Veillonellales – Veillonellaceae – Veillonella

Species

Veillonella parvula

Identified strains:

• Veillonella parvula AC2_8_11_AN_NA_2
• Veillonella parvula ACS-068-V-Sch12
• Veillonella parvula ATCC 17745
• Veillonella parvula DSM 2008
• Veillonella parvula HSIVP1

Description and significance

V. parvula is one of the six species belonging to the genus Veillonella which are gram-negative cocci and obligate anaerobes ^[1],^[2]. It is a nonfermentative organism that lives optimally at 37 C and a PH range 6.5-8.0 thus it is commonly found in the human oral, intestinal and vaginal microflora. The NCBI genome record for strain DSM 2008 reports a collection date before 1898 in France, isolated from the intestinal tract ^[2]. It has been identified as a causal pathogen of endocarditis, bacterimia and opportunistic infection ^[2]. Several studies have confirmed that it has an important role in the formation of dental plaque biofilm favouring the association of other peridontal pathogens and contributing to other systemic diseases. The high prevalence of this pathogen in patients that have poor oral health has prompted to understand the role of V. parvula in health and disease as well as its contribution to the human microbiome.

Genome structure

There is complete genome available from the NCBI for "V. parvula DSM 2008" (RefSeq NC_013520.1). The genome has a size of 2.13 Mb with 1,893 genes, 9 pseudo-genes and 3 frameshift genes. The GC content is 38.6% and encodes 1,822 proteins. There are 12 rRNA, 48 tRNA and 2 other RNA ^[3].

Cell structure and metabolism

V. parvula does not have a peptidoglycan layer and therefore it is gram-negative organism. It is able to colonize and survive acid environments such as in carious lesions. RNA-seq studies indicate that the histidine biosynthesis pathway is particularly upregulated in V. parvulathus a high level of intra-cellullar of histidine could assist with intra-cellular buffering capacity and adapt to the environment. V. parvula has an increased gene expression for the catabolism of lactate and succinate, hort-chain organic acid that are the source of energy ^[4].

Ecology

Aerobe/anaerobe, habitat (location in the oral cavity, potential other environments) and microbe/host interactions.

Pathology

V.parvula has been identified to have many pathogenic roles as well as being one of the organism responsible for bad mouthbreath. One study observed the distribution and frequency of oral Veillonella spp. and identified V. parvula as the predominant species in the subgingival biofilm of peridontal pockets and gingival sulcus in patients that presented chronic periodontitis ^[2]. Thus constituting a peridontal pathogen that facilitates the biofilm colonization of more pathogens of this type such as Porphyromonas gingivalis ^[2].

Application to biotechnology

Bioengineering, biotechnologically relevant enzyme/compound production, drug targets,…

Current research

Summarise some of the most recent discoveries regarding this species.

References

1. Mashima, I., Theodorea, C.F., Thaweboon, B., Thweboon, S., Nakazawa, F. (2016) Identification of Veillonella Species in the Tongue Biofilm bu using a Novel One-Step Polymerase Chain Reaction Methods. PlOs one 11(6): e0157516.

2. Mashima, I., Fujita, M., Nakatsuka, Y., Furuichi, Y., Herastuti,S., et al (2015) The Distribution and Frequency of Oral Veillonella spp.Associated with Chronic Periodontitis. Int J Curr Microbiol App Sci 4(3): 150-160

3. NCBI Prokaryote Genome Annotation, Veillonella parvula DSM 2008

4. Do, T., Sheehy, E. C., Mulli, T., Hughes, F., Beighton, D. (2015). Transcriptomic analysis of three Veillonella spp. present in carious dentine and in the saliva of caries-free individuals. Front Cell Infect Microbiol, 5:25. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2015.00025

n. Sundqvist, G., (1992) Associations between microbial species in dental root canal infections. Oral Microbiol Immunol 7(5):257–262. pmid:1494447 doi: 10.1111/j.1399-302x.1992.tb00584.x

This page is written by Emily Mantilla for the MICR3004 course, Semester 2, 2016