Marie-Ange Massicotte

Mrs. Marie-Ange Massicotte


Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

7Years (2020-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

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31 December 2020 in Microorganisms
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
PMPierre-Étienne Marcoux
Pierre-Étienne Marcoux
Antony T. VincentAntony T. Vincent
Antony T. Vincent
MMMarie-Ange Massicotte
Marie-Ange Massicotte
VPValérie E. Paquet
Valérie E. Paquet
EDEmilie Doucet
Emilie Doucet
Steve CharetteSteve Charette
Steve Charette
The type three secretion system (TTSS) locus of Aeromonas salmonicida subsp. salmonicida, located on the plasmid pAsa5, is known to be lost when the bacterium is grown at temperatures of 25 °C. The loss of the locus is due to the recombination of the insertion sequences flanking the TTSS region. However, the mechanism involved in this recombination is still elusive. Here, we analyzed 22 A. salmonicida subsp. salmonicida strains that had already lost their TTSS locus, and we systematically explored another 47 strains for their susceptibility to lose the same locus when grown at 25 °C. It appeared that strains from Europe were more prone to lose their TTSS locus compared to Canadian strains. More specifically, it was not possible to induce TTSS loss in Canadian strains that have AsaGEI2a, a genomic island, and prophage 3, or in Canadian strains without a genomic island. A comparative genomic approach revealed an almost perfect correlation between the presence of a cluster of genes, not yet characterized, and the susceptibility of various groups of strains to lose their locus. This cluster of genes encodes putative proteins with DNA binding capacity and phage proteins. This discovery creates new opportunities in the study of pAsa5 thermosensitivity.