The major causative agent of scombroid poisoning is histamine formed by bacterial decarboxylation of histidine. The authors reported previously that histamine was exclusively formed by the psychrotrophic halophilic bacteria Photobacterium phosphoreum in scombroid fish during storage at or below 10 degrees C. Moreover, histamine-forming ability was affected by two histidine decarboxylases: constitutive and inducible enzymes. This article reports the effect of various growth and reaction conditions, such as temperature, pH, and NaCl concentration, on the activity of two histidine decarboxylases that were isolated and separated by gel chromatography from cell-free extracts of P. phosphoreum. The histidine decarboxylase activity of the cell-free extracts was highest in 7 degrees C culture; in 5% NaCl, culture growth was inhibited, and growth was best in the culture grown at pH 6.0. Moreover, percent activity of the constitutive and inducible enzymes was highest for the inducible enzyme in cultures grown at 7 degrees C and pH 7.5 and in 5% NaCl. The temperature and pH dependences of histidine decarboxylase differed between the constitutive and inducible enzymes; that is, the activity of histidine decarboxylases was optimum at 30 degrees C and pH 6.5 for the inducible enzyme and 40 degrees C and pH 6.0 for the constitutive enzyme. The differences in the temperature and pH dependences between the two enzymes extended the activity range of histidine decarboxylase under reaction conditions. On the other hand, histidine decarboxylase activity was optimum in 0% NaCl for the two enzymes. Additionally, the effects of reaction temperature, pH, and NaCl concentration on the constitutive enzyme activity of the cell-free extracts were almost the same as those on the whole histidine decarboxylase activity of the cell-free extracts, suggesting that the constitutive enzyme activity reflected the whole histidine decarboxylase activity.

The major causative agent of scombroid poisoning is histamine formed by bacterial decarboxylation of histidine. We reported previously that histamine was exclusively formed by the psychrotrophic halophilic bacteria Photobacterium phosphoreum in scombroid fish during storage at or below 10 degrees C. Moreover, histamine-forming ability was affected by two histidine decarboxylases (HDCs): constitutive and inducible enzymes. In this study, the gene encoding P. phosphoreum HDC was cloned into Escherichia coli and sequenced. A sequence analysis of the DNA corresponding to the hdc gene revealed an open reading frame of 1,140 bp coding for a pyridoxal-5'-phosphate-dependent HDC of 380 amino acid residues with a predicted molecular mass of 42.6 kDa. The HDC amino acid sequences formed a phylogenetic clade with strong bootstrap support and revealed high sequence similarities among the P. phosphoreum isolate and species of the family Enterobacteriaceae and a separate phylogenetic branch with the lowest sequence similarity between the isolate and the taxonomically closer Listonella anguillarum. The T7 promoter was used to overexpress the hdc gene in E. coli cells. The recombinant clone, E. coli BL21(DE3), displayed significant levels of HDC activity. The recombinant hdc gene was suggested to code the inducible HDC; therefore, the optimum reaction conditions of the recombinant HDC were similar to those of the inducible HDC in the P. phosphoreum isolate. In addition, a putative catabolite-repressor protein binding site, amino acid permease gene, and histidine-tRNA synthetase gene were found in flanking regions of the hdc gene.

Background Relapsing fever (RF) borreliae are arthropod-borne spirochetes and some of them cause human diseases, which are characterized by relapsing or recurring episodes of fever. Recently, it has been classified into two groups: soft tick-borne RF (STRF) borreliae and hard tick-borne RF (HTRF) borreliae. STRF borreliae include classical RF agents and HTRF borreliae, the latter of which include B. miyamotoi, a human pathogen recently identified in Eurasia and North America. Results In this study, we determined the genome sequences of 16 HTRF borreliae strains: 15 B. miyamotoi strains (9 from Hokkaido Island, Japan, 3 from Honshu Island, Japan, and 3 from Mongolia) and a Borrelia sp. tHM16w. Chromosomal gene synteny was highly conserved among the HTRF strains sequenced in this study, even though they were isolated from different geographic regions and different tick species. Phylogenetic analysis based on core gene sequences revealed that HTRF and STRF borreliae are clearly distinguishable, with each forming a monophyletic group in the RF borreliae lineage. Moreover, the evolutionary relationships of RF borreliae are consistent with the biological and ecological features of each RF borreliae sublineage and can explain the unique characteristics of Borrelia anserina. In addition, the pairwise genetic distances between HTRF borreliae strains were well correlated with those of vector species rather than with the geographical distances between strain isolation sites. This result suggests that the genetic diversification of HTRF borreliae is attributed to the speciation of vector ticks and that this relationship might be required for efficient transmission of HTRF borreliae within vector ticks. Conclusions The results of the present study, together with those from previous investigations, support the hypothesis that the common ancestor of borreliae was transmitted by hard-bodied ticks and that only STRF borreliae switched to using soft-bodied ticks as a vector, which was followed by the emergence of Borrelia recurrentis, lice-borne RF borreliae. Our study clarifies the phylogenetic relationships between RF borreliae, and the data obtained will contribute to a better understanding of the evolutionary history of RF borreliae.

In order to determine the mechanism of histamine (Hm) formation in scombroid fish stored at low temperature, total viable and luminous bacterial counts (TVC and LBC), bacterial flora, Hm contents in several parts of mackerel stored in ice and at the temperature of ice , and Hm formation by the isolates were studied.In the first experiment (Exp. I), Hm was formed in the muscles during storage at the temperature of ice but not in ice. Hm content was far higher in the ventral muscles than in the dorsal muscles . P. phosphoreum grew in the abdominal walls in both storages (ca. 81% in LBC/TVC), and in the muscles during storage at the temperature of ice (ca. 2.5% in LBC/TVC). P. phosphoreum isolated formed a high level of Hm. In the second experiment (Exp. II), a small amount of Hm was formed in the muscles, especially the ventral muscles, and P. phosphoreum was not found in fish before and after storage. These results indicate that P. phosphoreum plays an exclusive role in histamine formation in mackerel stored at the temperature of ice.Both whole and halophilic bacterial floras were dominated by Vibrio in all the parts (skin, muscle, abdominal walls) of fish in Exp. I and by Pseudomonas or Moraxella in Exp. II. Photobacterium leiognathi was found in all the parts of fish before storage in Exp. I but not in Exp. II, and P. phosphoreum also grew only in fish after storage in Exp. I as above. Pseudomonas or Moraxella dominated also in Exp. I after growth of P. phosphoreum. These results suggest that Photobacterium grows in the flora dominated by Vibrio, especially halophilic floras, and hardly grows in the flora dominated by Pseudomonas or Moraxella.

The present work was carried out to investigate factors influencing histamine formation by washed cell suspensions or cell-free extracts and growth in each condition on Photobacterium phosphoreum isolated from mackerel when stored at 0•Ž.