# MOLECULAR GENETICS OF VIBRIO PARAHAEMOLYTICUS HEMOLYSIN

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND BALTIMORE · 1988 · $134,981

## Abstract

Vibrio parahaemolyticus is an important cause of diarrheal disease due to
the consumption of imporperly prepared seafood.  Although the pathogenesis
of disease due to this species is uncertain, a consistent finding in
strains isolated from disease is the presence of a hemolysin designated
thermostable direct hemolysin (TDH) or the "Kanagawa Phenomenon" (KP)
associated hemolysin.  Previous research on this project has resulted in
the cloning and sequencing of genes encoding TDH (tdh), the development and
testing of a DNA probe for tdh genes and the construction of isogenic
strains which do not produce TDH.  The proposed continuation of this
project will answer additional questions that have arisen concerning the
genetics of TDH production and investigate the role of a recently
discovered shiga-like toxin in the pathogenesis of disease due to V.
parahaemolyticus.  The proposed research will focus on the cloning and
sequencing of genes encoding the shiga-like toxin and assess the
significance of this toxin in the disease process.

The specific aims of this project are as follows:  1) To investigate the
phenomenon of gene duplication of the gene encoding TDH (tdh).  2) To clone
and sequence the single gene copy present in strains of V. parahaemolyticus
which produce very low amounts of TDH and compare this gene to tdh genes
found in strains which produce high amount of TDH.  3) To investigate the
role of plasmids in the transfer of tdh genes.  4) To clone and
characterize genes encoding a shiga-like toxin in V. parahaemolyticus.  5)
To construct isogenic strains of V. parahaemolyticus which do not produce
the shiga-like toxin and assess their potential pathogenicity.  6) To
develop a DNA probe capable of detecting genes encoding shiga-like toxin
and employ it to survey the incidence of these genes in environmental and
clinical isolates of V. parahaemolyticus and in other Vibrio species
pathogenic for man.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 3128562
- **Project number:** 5R01AI019165-07
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND BALTIMORE
- **SAM.gov UEI:** Z9CRZKD42ZT1
- **Principal Investigator:** JAMES B KAPER
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 1988
- **Award amount:** $134,981
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 1982-09-01 → 1989-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/3128562

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 3128562, MOLECULAR GENETICS OF VIBRIO PARAHAEMOLYTICUS HEMOLYSIN (5R01AI019165-07). Retrieved via MORVS 2026-10-25 from https://api.morvs.ai/grant/nih/3128562. Licensed CC0.

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