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Analysis of the Lateral Flagellar Gene System of Aeromonas hydrophila AH-3

Departamento de Microbiología, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Barcelona, Diagonal 645, 08071 Barcelona, Spain,¹ Division of Molecular and Genetic Medicine, University of Sheffield Medical School, Sheffield S10 2RX, United Kingdom²

Received 25 July 2005/ Accepted 21 October 2005

Mesophilic Aeromonas strains express a polar flagellum in all culture conditions, and certain strains produce lateral flagella on semisolid media or on surfaces. Although Aeromonas lateral flagella have been described as a colonization factor, little is known about their organization and expression. Here we characterized the complete lateral flagellar gene cluster of Aeromonas hydrophila AH-3 containing 38 genes, 9 of which (lafA-U) have been reported previously. Among the flgL_L and lafA structural genes we found a modification accessory factor gene (maf-5) that is involved in formation of lateral flagella; this is the first time that such a gene has been described for lateral flagellar gene systems. All Aeromonas lateral flagellar genes were located in a unique chromosomal region, in contrast to Vibrio parahaemolyticus, in which the analogous genes are distributed in two different chromosomal regions. In A. hydrophila mutations in flhA_L, lafK, fliJ_L, flgN_L, flgE_L, and maf-5 resulted in a loss of lateral flagella and reductions in adherence and biofilm formation, but they did not affect polar flagellum synthesis. Furthermore, we also cloned and sequenced the A. hydrophila AH-3 alternative sigma factor ⁵⁴ (rpoN); mutation of this factor suggested that it is involved in expression of both types of flagella.

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