Construction of a stable GFP-tagged Vibrio harveyi strain for bacterial dynamics analysis of abalone infection.

Vibrio harveyi is a bacterial marine pathogen that can cause fatal disease in a large range of vertebrates and invertebrates, including the commercially important marine gastropod, Haliotis tuberculata. Since 1997, strains of this bacterium have regularly been causing high mortalities in farmed and wild abalone populations. The way in which the pathogen enters into abalone and the disease transmission mechanisms are thus far unknown. Therefore, a pathogenic strain, ORM4, was green fluorescent protein-tagged and validated both for its growth characteristics and for its virulence as a genuine model for abalone disease. The strain allows V. harveyi quantification by flow cytometry in seawater and in abalone haemolymph as well as the in situ detection of the parasite inside abalone tissues.