BackgroundVibrio vulnificus, a resident in the human gut, is frequently found in seafood, causing food-borne illnesses including gastroenteritis and severe septicemia. While V. vulnificus has been known to be one of the major food-borne pathogens, pathogenicity and virulence factors are not fully understood yet. To extend our understanding of the pathogenesis of V. vulnificus at the genomic level, the genome of V. vulnificus FORC_017 isolated from a female patient experiencing a hemorrhagic rash was completely sequenced and analyzed.ResultsThree discontinuous contigs were generated from a hybrid assembly using Illumina MiSeq and PacBio platforms, revealing that the genome of the FORC_017 consists of two circular chromosomes and a plasmid. Chromosome I consists of 3,253,417-bp (GC content 46.49 %) containing 2943 predicted open reading frames (ORFs) and chromosome II of 1,905,745-bp (GC content 46.90 %) containing 1638 ORFs. The plasmid pFORC17 consists of 70,069-bp (GC content 43.77 %) containing 84 ORFs. The average nucleotide identity (ANI) value of the FORC_017 and CMCP6 strains was 98.53, suggesting that they are closely related.ConclusionsPathogenesis-associated genes including vvhA, rtx gene cluster, and various hemolysin genes were present in FORC_017. In addition, three complete secretion systems (Type I, II and VI) as well as iron uptake-related genes for virulence of the FORC_017 were detected, suggesting that this strain is pathogenic. Further comparative genome analysis revealed that FORC_017 and CMCP6 share major toxin genes including vvhA and rtx for pathogenesis activities. The genome information of the FORC_017 provides novel insights into pathogenicity and virulence factors of V. vulnificus.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13099-016-0104-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Background
Microplastics (MPs) and nanoplastics (NPs) formed from decomposed plastic are increasing environmental threats. Although MPs and NPs exposed through various routes enter the systemic circulation, the potential toxicity of those is largely unknown. We investigated whether polystyrene NPs (PS-NPs) promote the coagulation activity of red blood cells (RBCs).
Results
We tested several types of PS-NPs using human RBCs and found that amine-modified 100 nm PS-NPs were the most potent. We measured the uptake of PS-NPs using flow cytometry and confocal microscopy. Electron microscopy revealed morphological changes of RBCs by PS-NPs. PS-NPs induced the externalization of phosphatidylserine, generation of microvesicles in RBCs, and perturbations in the intracellular microenvironment. PS-NPs increased the activity of scramblases responsible for phospholipid translocation in RBCs. PS-NPs modulated the functional interaction to adjacent tissues and coagulation cascade, enhancing RBC adhesion and thrombin generation. Our observations in human RBCs were consistent with those in isolated rat RBCs, showing no inter-species differences. In rat venous thrombosis models, the intravenous administration of PS-NPs enhanced thrombus formation.
Conclusion
Amine-modified PS-NPs induce the prothrombotic activation of RBCs causing thrombus formation. We believe that our study will contribute to understanding the potential toxicity of amine-modified polystyrene particles in blood cells and cardiovascular systems.
Due to abundant contamination in various foods, the pathogenesis of Bacillus cereus has been widely studied in physiological and molecular level. B. cereus FORC_005 was isolated from a Korean side dish, soy sauce braised fish-cake with quail-egg in South Korea. While 21 complete genome sequences of B. cereus has been announced to date, this strain was completely sequenced, analyzed, and compared with other complete genome sequences of B. cereus to elucidate the distinct pathogenic features of a strain isolated in South Korea. The genomic DNA containing a circular chromosome consists of 5,349,617-bp with a GC content of 35.29 %. It was predicted to have 5170 open reading frames, 106 tRNA genes, and 42 rRNA genes. Among the predicted ORFs, 3892 ORFs were annotated to encode functional proteins (75.28 %) and 1278 ORFs were predicted to encode hypothetical proteins (748 conserved and 530 non-conserved hypothetical proteins). This genome information of B. cereus FORC_005 would extend our understanding of its pathogenesis in genomic level for efficient control of its contamination in foods and further food poisoning.
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