In:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 112, No. 34 ( 2015-08-25), p. 10798-10803
Abstract:
Acute hepatopancreatic necrosis disease (AHPND) is a severe, newly emergent penaeid shrimp disease caused by Vibrio parahaemolyticus that has already led to tremendous losses in the cultured shrimp industry. Until now, its disease-causing mechanism has remained unclear. Here we show that an AHPND-causing strain of V. parahaemolyticus contains a 70-kbp plasmid (pVA1) with a postsegregational killing system, and that the ability to cause disease is abolished by the natural absence or experimental deletion of the plasmid-encoded homologs of the Photorhabdus insect-related (Pir) toxins PirA and PirB. We determined the crystal structure of the V. parahaemolyticus PirA and PirB (PirA vp and PirB vp ) proteins and found that the overall structural topology of PirA vp /PirB vp is very similar to that of the Bacillus Cry insecticidal toxin-like proteins, despite the low sequence identity ( 〈 10%). This structural similarity suggests that the putative PirAB vp heterodimer might emulate the functional domains of the Cry protein, and in particular its pore-forming activity. The gene organization of pVA1 further suggested that pirAB vp may be lost or acquired by horizontal gene transfer via transposition or homologous recombination.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
0027-8424
,
1091-6490
DOI:
10.1073/pnas.1503129112
Language:
English
Publisher:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Publication Date:
2015
detail.hit.zdb_id:
209104-5
detail.hit.zdb_id:
1461794-8
SSG:
11
SSG:
12
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