biology

Vibrio coralliilyticus

Vibrio coralliilyticus is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Vibrio coralliilyticus rather than just read about it. In short: Vibrio coralliilyticus is a Gram-negative, rod-shaped bacterium. It has a polar flagellum that is used for motility and has been shown to be critical for its virulence to corals.

Key takeaways

Vibrio coralliilyticus belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Vibrio coralliilyticus to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Vibrio coralliilyticus from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Vibrio coralliilyticus is a Gram-negative, rod-shaped bacterium. It has a polar flagellum that is used for motility and has been shown to be critical for its virulence to corals. It is a versatile pathogen, impacting several marine invertebrates including Pocillopora damicornis corals (hence its name), both the Pacific and Eastern Oyster's larvae (Crassostrea gigas and Crassostrea virginica) and some vertebrates such as the rainbow trout. It is a bacterium of considerable interest given its direct contribution to temperature dependent coral bleaching as well as its impacts on aquaculture where it can contribute to significant mortalities in larval oyster hatcheries. There are several known virulent strains, which appear on both the Pacific and Atlantic Coasts of the United States. After its initial discovery some strains were incorrectly classified as Vibrio tubiashii including the RE22 and RE98 strains but were later reclassified as Vibrio coralliilyticus.

Pathogenicity and virulence factors Vibrio coralliilyticus is a causative agent of both bacterially induced coral bleaching and larval oyster mortality. In corals this bleaching is the result of the death of endosymbiont colonies which is mediated by V. coralliilyticus disabling Photosystem II and in some cases causing cell lysis. This also seems to be exacerbated by increased virulence as a result of increasing ocean temperatures. In oyster larvae an outbreak of V. coralliilyticus in a hatchery can result in mortality of up to 80%, greatly reducing hatchery production for that season leading to significant economic loss. In oysters the pathogen can cause deformities of the cilia as well as disfigurements of the velum, and eventually death. V. coralliilyticus also kills bacterial cells as well utilizing a Type VI secretion system to kill competitors, even out competing Vibrio cholerae cells in a bacterial killing assay. V. coralliilyticus possesses a host of virulence factors that contribute to its pathogenicity. It has been found to utilize several proteases, secretion systems, hemolysins, resistance factors, and quorum sensing. Some of the known proteases, zinc-metalloproteases, cause the previously mentioned inactivation of Photosystem II in coral photosynthetic endosymbionts (Symbiodinium) leading to coral beaching. Known secretion systems include Type III, Type IV and Type VI. Spinard et al. made note of several metalloprotease and hemolysin genes in the draft genome sequence published in 2015, several of which resembled proteins of known function found in a related pathogen, Vibrio anguillarum.

Treatments Vibrio coralliilyticus has been studied quite extensively since its discovery and as such, several potential treatments for infected organisms have been proposed. In a publication by Zhao et al. in 2018 use of a probiotic organism, Phaobacter inhibens strain S4, was proposed as a potential solution to V. coralliilyticus infection in larval oysters. The S4 strain was able to inhibit production of proteases by the Vibrios and slow their growth using antibiotic compounds as well. Another proposed solution, directed towards coral pathogenicity, is the use of phage therapy to prevent the spread of the bacteria to neighboring corals.

References

Further reading Pollock, F. J.; Morris, P. J.; Willis, B. L.; Bourne, D. G. (2010). "Detection and Quantification of the Coral Pathogen Vibrio coralliilyticus by Real-Time PCR with TaqMan Fluorescent Probes". Applied and Environmental Microbiology. 76 (15): 5282–5286. doi:10.1128/AEM.00330-10. ISSN 0099-2240. PMC 2916481. PMID 20525865. de O Santos, Eidy; Alves, Nelson; Dias, Graciela M; Mazotto, Ana Maria; Vermelho, Alane; Vora, Gary J; Wilson, Bryan; Beltran, Victor H; Bourne, David G; Le Roux, Frédérique; Thompson, Fabiano L (2011). "Genomic and proteomic analyses of the coral pathogen Vibrio coralliilyticus reveal a diverse virulence repertoire". The ISME Journal. 5 (9): 1471–1483. doi:10.1038/ismej.2011.19. ISSN 1751-7362. PMC 3160677. PMID 21451583. Cohen, Yossi; Joseph Pollock, F.; Rosenberg, Eugene; Bourne, David G. (2013). "Phage therapy treatment of the coral pathogenVibrio coralliilyticus". MicrobiologyOpen. 2 (1): 64–74. doi:10.1002/mbo3.52. ISSN 2045-8827. PMC 3584214. PMID 23239510.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link) Vizcaino, Maria I.; Johnson, Wesley R.; Kimes, Nikole E.; Williams, Katherine; Torralba, Manolito; Nelson, Karen E.; Smith, Garriet W.; Weil, Ernesto; Moeller, Peter D. R.; Morris, Pamela J. (2010). "Antimicrobial Resistance of the Coral Pathogen Vibrio coralliilyticus and Caribbean Sister Phylotypes Isolated from a Diseased Octocoral". Microbial Ecology. 59 (4): 646–657. doi:10.1007/s00248-010-9644-3. ISSN 0095-3628. PMID 20309538. S2CID 24595173.

External links "Vibrio coralliilyticus". The Encyclopedia of Life. Type strain of Vibrio coralliilyticus at BacDive - the Bacterial Diversity Metadatabase

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Vibrio coralliilyticus

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Vibrio coralliilyticus claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Vibrio coralliilyticus before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Vibrio coralliilyticus ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Vibrio coralliilyticus

In research: Vibrio coralliilyticus appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Vibrio coralliilyticus in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Vibrio coralliilyticus is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Bacteria described in 2010, Marine microorganisms, Vibrio, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Vibrio coralliilyticus outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Vibrio coralliilyticus in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Vibrio coralliilyticus means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Vibrio coralliilyticus out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Vibrio coralliilyticus in simple terms?

Vibrio coralliilyticus is a Gram-negative, rod-shaped bacterium. It has a polar flagellum that is used for motility and has been shown to be critical for its virulence to corals.

Why does Vibrio coralliilyticus matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Vibrio coralliilyticus?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Vibrio coralliilyticus.