The UhpA mutant of Edwardsiella piscicida enhanced its motility and the colonization in the intestine of tilapia.

Edwardsiella piscicida (E. piscicida) is a significant bacterial pathogen of cultured fish, which infected fish meanly through the intestine. Glucose 6-phosphate (Glu6P) in the intestine is nutritious to the pathogen, Meanwhile, Glu6P was found using as a virulent regulating signal for bacteria. The UhpA, one of the Glu6P transport system regulatory proteins could down-regulate the uhpC/uhpB/uhpA system and decrease its pathogenicity. However, the motility and the colonization of E. piscicida affected by UhpA were still unclear. In this study, the motility and the colonization of E. piscicida were monitored. The result demonstrated that the motility of EIB202 was significantly stronger than that of in ΔuhpA according to fractions 4, 8 and 9. However, the motility of ΔuhpA was significantly stronger than that of EIB202 according to the total number at the whole experiment. Although, there was no difference in the number of bacteria in the posterior intestine of tilapia after infected with E. piscicida EIB202 and ΔuhpA. The number of bacteria in the anterior and the middle intestine of fish infected with ΔuhpA were significantly higher than that of in fish infected with EIB202 at the whole experiment (P < 0.05). Interestingly, both E. piscicida strains colonized in the anterior intestine than that of in the middle and posterior intestines of tilapia. Besides, the gene expression of IL-1β and TNF-α in the head-kidney of fish infected with ΔuhpA showed significantly higher (p < 0.05) than fish infected with EIB202 during the whole experimental period. Most importantly, the survival rate of E. piscicida EIB202 and ΔuhpA were 57% and 37% respectively. All results indicate that the uhpA gene mutant in E. piscicida could enhance its motility and the colonization in the intestine of tilapia, this illustrates the mechanism of UhpA decreases the pathogenesis of E. piscicida in fish.