The Role Of Uhpa In Regulating The Virulence Gene Expression In Edwardsiella Piscicida

Edwardsiella piscicida (E. piscicida) is an important fish pathogen. However, the mechanism of Glu6P transport regulatory protein UhpA how to affect the virulence gene expression in E. piscicida is still unclear. The results in this study showed that the metabolism-related gene expression of cysteine synthase (orf 1134) and sulphate transporter (ychM) in the uhpA mutant strain Delta uhpA was 0.76-fold and 0.68-fold lower than the ones in the wild strains (p < .05). The gene expression of ethA and ethB in the Delta uhpA strain was 0.80-fold and 0.72-fold lower than the ones in the wild strains (p < .05). However, the gene expression of fliC and flgN in the Delta uhpA was 1.51-fold and 1.21-fold higher than the ones in the wild strains (p < .05). The gene expression of T3SS (esrB and esrC) and T6SS (evpB and evpC) in the Delta uhpA was 1.27-fold, 1.13-fold, 1.28-fold and 1.23-fold higher than the ones in the wild strains (p < .05). This suggested that the uhpA gene could regulate the key virulence gene expression, and the uhpA gene was associated with the pathogenicity of E. piscicida in fish.