Vibrio cholera is the causative agent of cholera, a severed diarrheal illness that affects more than 7 million people worldwide each year. The pathogenesis of V. cholera infecting as been extensively studied, but important gaps in our understanding still exist. One of these gaps is the role of iron V. cholera pathogenesis. The long-range goals of this project are to characterize iron-regulated virulence genes in V. cholera and to use knowledge of these genes and their in vivo regulation to improve V. cholera vaccine development.
The SPECIFIC AIMS designed to achieve these goals are: 1) further analysis of the role of IrgA in the pathogenesis of V. cholera infecting, including a role in iron uptake in vivo from lactoferrin, transferrin or ferrous iron, a role as an intestinal adhesion, or a role in resistance to bacterial killing in tensional secretions; 2) examination of the role of IrgB in the regulation of virulence genes, including the recently described heme uptake system of V cholera, using two-dimensional protein gel electrophoresis and analysis of TnphoA fusions; 3) identification and characterization of additional iron-regulated genes in V. cholera that relate to virulence in an animal model; 4) investigation of the overlap of the fur gene and iron in the regulation of genes involved in V. cholera pathogenesis, including determination of the virulence of a fur mutant and of mutants in genes negatively regulated by iron independently of Fur, positively regulated by iron, and negatively regulated by iron but only expressed in a fur mutant; 5) identification of iron-regulated proteins in V. cholera that are expressed in vivo and immunogenic, using immunoblotting with convalescent sera from patients with cholera, as well as sera and intestinal fluids from rabbits experimentally infected with V. cholera.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
1R01AI034968-01
Application #
2070277
Study Section
Bacteriology and Mycology Subcommittee 2 (BM)
Project Start
1993-12-01
Project End
1998-11-30
Budget Start
1993-12-01
Budget End
1994-11-30
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
1994
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Massachusetts General Hospital
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
Boston
State
MA
Country
United States
Zip Code
02199
Butterton, J R; Choi, M H; Watnick, P I et al. (2000) Vibrio cholerae VibF is required for vibriobactin synthesis and is a member of the family of nonribosomal peptide synthetases. J Bacteriol 182:1731-8
Rogers, M B; Sexton, J A; DeCastro, G J et al. (2000) Identification of an operon required for ferrichrome iron utilization in Vibrio cholerae. J Bacteriol 182:2350-3
Murley, Y M; Carroll, P A; Skorupski, K et al. (1999) Differential transcription of the tcpPH operon confers biotype-specific control of the Vibrio cholerae ToxR virulence regulon. Infect Immun 67:5117-23
Wong, S M; Carroll, P A; Rahme, L G et al. (1998) Modulation of expression of the ToxR regulon in Vibrio cholerae by a member of the two-component family of response regulators. Infect Immun 66:5854-61
Watnick, P I; Butterton, J R; Calderwood, S B (1998) The interaction of the Vibrio cholerae transcription factors, Fur and IrgB, with the overlapping promoters of two virulence genes, irgA and irgB. Gene 209:65-70
Calia, K E; Waldor, M K; Calderwood, S B (1998) Use of representational difference analysis to identify genomic differences between pathogenic strains of Vibrio cholerae. Infect Immun 66:849-52
Watnick, P I; Eto, T; Takahashi, H et al. (1997) Purification of Vibrio cholerae fur and estimation of its intracellular abundance by antibody sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. J Bacteriol 179:243-7
Carroll, P A; Zhao, G; Boyko, S A et al. (1997) Identification, sequencing, and enzymatic activity of the erythrose-4-phosphate dehydrogenase gene of Vibrio cholerae. J Bacteriol 179:293-6
Carroll, P A; Tashima, K T; Rogers, M B et al. (1997) Phase variation in tcpH modulates expression of the ToxR regulon in Vibrio cholerae. Mol Microbiol 25:1099-111
Butterton, J R; Ryan, E T; Shahin, R A et al. (1996) Development of a germfree mouse model of Vibrio cholerae infection. Infect Immun 64:4373-7

Showing the most recent 10 out of 16 publications