Department for the Study of Territory and Its Resources, University of Genoa, Corso Europa 26, 16132 Genoa, Italy Maryland Pathogen Research Institute Center of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
Environ Microbiol Rep. 2012 Aug;4(4):439-45. doi: 10.1111/j.1758-2229.2012.00356.x. Epub 2012 May 24.
Vibrio cholerae N-acetyl glucosamine-binding protein A (GbpA) is a chitin binding protein and a virulence factor involved in the colonization of human intestine. We investigated the distribution and genetic variations of gbpA in 488 V. cholerae strains of environmental and clinical origin, belonging to different serogroups and biotypes. We found that the gene is consistently present and highly conserved including an environmental V. cholerae-related strain of ancestral origin. The gene was also consistently expressed in a number of representative V. cholerae strains cultured in laboratory aquatic microcosms under conditions simulating those found in temperate marine environments. Functional analysis carried out on V. cholerae O1 El Tor N16961 showed that GbpA is not involved in adhesion to inorganic surfaces but promotes interaction with environmental biotic substrates (plankton and bivalve hepatopancreas cells) representing known marine reservoir or host for the bacterium. It is suggested that the ability of GbpA to colonize human intestinal cells most probably originated from its primary function in the aquatic environment.
霍乱弧菌 N-乙酰氨基葡萄糖结合蛋白 A（GbpA）是一种壳聚糖结合蛋白，也是一种与人类肠道定植有关的毒力因子。我们研究了 488 株来自不同血清群和生物型的环境和临床来源的霍乱弧菌菌株中 gbpA 的分布和遗传变异。我们发现该基因始终存在且高度保守，包括具有祖先起源的环境相关霍乱弧菌菌株。该基因在实验室水生微宇宙中培养的一些代表性霍乱弧菌菌株中也始终表达，这些条件模拟了温带海洋环境中发现的条件。对霍乱弧菌 O1 El Tor N16961 进行的功能分析表明，GbpA 不参与与无机表面的粘附，但促进与环境生物基质（浮游生物和双壳类动物肝胰腺细胞）的相互作用，这些基质是已知的细菌海洋储存库或宿主。因此，GbpA 定植人类肠道细胞的能力很可能源自其在水生环境中的主要功能。
