Low salinity activates a virulence program in the generalist marine pathogen subsp. .

Facultative marine bacterial pathogens sense environmental signals so that the expression of virulence factors is upregulated on entry into hosts and downregulated during the free-living lifestyle in the environment. In this study, we utilized transcriptome sequencing to compare the transcriptional profiles of subsp. , a generalist pathogen that causes disease in diverse marine animals and fatal infections in humans at NaCl concentrations that mimic the free-living lifestyle or host internal milieu, respectively.

A Secreted NlpC/P60 Endopeptidase from Photobacterium damselae subsp. Cleaves the Peptidoglycan of Potentially Competing Bacteria.

Peptidoglycan (PG) is a major component of the bacterial cell wall, forming a mesh-like structure enwrapping the bacteria that is essential for maintaining structural integrity and providing support for anchoring other components of the cell envelope. PG biogenesis is highly dynamic and requires multiple enzymes, including several hydrolases that cleave glycosidic or amide bonds in the PG. This work describes the structural and functional characterization of an NlpC/P60-containing peptidase from subsp.

Diverse Horizontally-Acquired Gene Clusters Confer Sucrose Utilization to Different Lineages of the Marine Pathogen subsp. .

The ability to metabolize sucrose is a variable trait within the family Vibrionaceae. The marine bacterium Photobacterium damselae subsp. damselae (Pdd), pathogenic for marine animals and humans, is generally described as negative for sucrose utilization (Scr).