Development of diagnostic and vaccine markers through cloning, expression, and regulation of putative virulence-protein-encoding genes of Aeromonas hydrophila

Aeromonas hydrophila is an opportunistic bacterial pathogen that is associated with a number of diseases in fish, amphibians, reptiles, and humans. In fish it causes several disease symptoms including tail and skin rot, and haemorrhagic septicemia; in human it causes soft-tissue wound infection and diarrhoea. The pathogenesis of A. hydrophila is multifactorial, but the mechanism is unknown so far. It is considered to be mediated by expression and secretion of extracellular proteins such as aerolysin, lipase, chitinase, amylase, gelatinase, hemolysins, and enterotoxins. A number of the putative virulence-protein-encoding genes that are present in the genome of A. hydrophila have been targeted by PCR for molecular diagnosis. These significant genes are also targeted for over-production of proteins by cloning and expression methods. In this review, we emphasize recent progress in the cloning, expression, and regulation of putative virulence-protein-encoding genes of A. hydrophila for a better understanding of the pathogenesis and also help to provide effective strategies for control of diseases.