The Secretome of Vibrio cholerae

Abstract

Vibrio cholerae is a facultative human pathogen responsible for the cholera disease which infects millions of people worldwide each year. V. cholerae is a natural inhabitant of aquatic environments and the infection usually occurs after ingestion of contaminated water or food. The virulence factors of V. cholerae have been extensively studied in the last decades and include the cholera toxin and the coregulated pilus. Most of the virulence factors of V. cholerae belong to the secretome, which corresponds to all the molecules secreted in the extracellular environment such as proteins, exopolysaccharides, extracellular DNA or membrane vesicles. In this chapter, we review the current knowledge of the secretome of V. cholerae and its role in virulence, colonization and resistance. In the first section, we focus on the proteins secreted through conventional secretion systems. The second and third sections emphasize on the membrane vesicles and on the secretome associated with biofilms.