Publications by Melanie Blokesch

Related publications (61)

Exploring Mobile Genetic Elements in Vibrio cholerae

Melanie Blokesch, Natalia Carolina Drebes Dorr, Alexandre Lemopoulos

Members of the bacterial species Vibrio cholerae are known both as prominent constituents of marine environments and as the causative agents of cholera, a severe diarrheal disease. While strains responsible for cholera have been extensively studied over th ...

Oxford University Press (OUP)2025

Reassessment of the 2010-2011 Haiti cholera outbreak and rainfall-driven multiseason projections

Andrea Rinaldo, Enrico Bertuzzo, Melanie Blokesch, Lorenzo Mari, Lorenzo Righetto

Mathematical models can provide key insights into the course of an ongoing epidemic, potentially aiding real-time emergency management in allocating health care resources and by anticipating the impact of alternative interventions. We study the ex post rel ...

2012

Prediction of the spatial evolution and effects of control measures for the unfolding Haiti cholera outbreak

Andrea Rinaldo, Enrico Bertuzzo, Melanie Blokesch, Lorenzo Mari, Lorenzo Righetto

Here we propose spatially explicit predictions of the residual progression of the current Haiti cholera outbreak accounting for the dynamics of susceptible and infected individuals within different local human communities, and for the redistribution among ...

American Geophysical Union2011

Circulation of a Quorum-Sensing-Impaired Variant of Vibrio cholerae Strain C6706 Masks Important Phenotypes

Melanie Blokesch, Sandrine Stutzmann

Vibrio cholerae, the causative agent of cholera, is a model organism for studying virulence regulation, biofilm formation, horizontal gene transfer, and the cell-to-cell communication known as quorum sensing (QS). As in any research field, discrepancies be ...

Amer Soc Microbiology2016

DNA Transport across the Outer and Inner Membranes of Naturally Transformable Vibrio cholerae Is Spatially but Not Temporally Coupled

Melanie Blokesch, Patrick Martin Seitz

The physiological state of natural competence for transformation allows certain bacteria to take up free DNA from the environment and to recombine such newly acquired DNA into their chromosomes. However, even though conserved components that are required t ...

American Society for Microbiology2014

Genetic manipulation of Vibrio cholerae by combining natural transformation with FLP recombination

Melanie Blokesch

Even though Vibrio cholerae is a well-known human pathogen, it is also a normal member of aquatic habitats. Within this environment it often forms biofilms on the chitin-containing exoskeleton of crustaceans and their molts. Chitin not only serves as nutri ...

Elsevier2010

An intracellular replication niche for Vibrio cholerae in the amoeba Acanthamoeba castellanii

Melanie Blokesch, Catherine Maclachlan, Charles Ulric V Van der Henst

Vibrio cholerae is a human pathogen and the causative agent of cholera. The persistence of this bacterium in aquatic environments is a key epidemiological concern, as cholera is transmitted through contaminated water. Predatory protists, such as amoebae, a ...

Nature Publishing Group2015

Regulatory elements involved in the expression of competence genes in naturally transformable Vibrio cholerae

Melanie Blokesch, Mirella Lo Scrudato

BackgroundThe human pathogen Vibrio cholerae normally enters the developmental program of natural competence for transformation after colonizing chitinous surfaces. Natural competence is regulated by at least three pathways in this organism: chitin sensing ...

BioMed Central2014

The emergence of Vibrio pathogens in Europe: ecology, evolution, and pathogenesis (Paris, 11–12th March 2015)

Melanie Blokesch

Global change has caused a worldwide increase in reports of Vibrio-associated diseases with ecosystem-wide impacts on humans and marine animals. In Europe, higher prevalence of human infections followed regional climatic trends with outbreaks occurring dur ...

Frontiers Media SA2015

In and out—contribution of natural transformation to the shuffling of large genomic regions

Melanie Blokesch

Naturally competent bacteria can pull free DNA from their surroundings. This incoming DNA can serve various purposes, ranging from acting as a source of nutrients or DNA stretches for repair to the acquisition of novel genetic information. The latter proce ...

Elsevier2017

Selection of Vibrio crassostreae relies on a plasmid expressing a type 6 secretion system cytotoxic for host immune cells

Melanie Blokesch, Candice Stoudmann

Pacific oyster mortality syndrome affects juveniles of Crassostrea gigas oysters and threatens the sustainability of commercial and natural stocks of this species. Vibrio crassostreae has been repeatedly isolated from diseased animals and the majority of t ...

2020

Vibrio cholerae pathogenicity island 2 encodes two distinct types of restriction systems

Melanie Blokesch, David William Adams, Alexandre Lemopoulos, Grazia Vizzarro

In response to predation by bacteriophages and invasion by other mobile genetic elements such as plasmids, bacteria have evolved specialized defense systems that are often clustered together on genomic islands. The O1 El Tor strains of Vibrio cholerae resp ...

American Society for Microbiology2024

The Regulatory Network of Natural Competence and Transformation of Vibrio cholerae

Melanie Blokesch, Mirella Lo Scrudato

The human pathogen Vibrio cholerae is an aquatic bacterium frequently encountered in rivers, lakes, estuaries, and coastal regions. Within these environmental reservoirs, the bacterium is often found associated with zooplankton and more specifically with t ...

2012

Overexpression of the tcp Gene Cluster Using the T7 RNA Polymerase/Promoter System and Natural Transformation-Mediated Genetic Engineering of Vibrio cholerae

Melanie Blokesch

The human pathogen and aquatic bacterium Vibrio cholerae belongs to the group of naturally competent bacteria. This developmental program allows the bacterium to take up free DNA from its surrounding followed by a homologous recombination event, which allo ...

Public Library of Science2013

The DNA-Uptake Process of Naturally Competent Vibrio cholerae

Melanie Blokesch, Noémie Matthey

The sophisticated DNA-uptake machinery used during natural transformation is still poorly characterized, especially in Gram-negative bacteria where the transforming DNA has to cross two membranes as well as the peptidoglycan layer before entering into the ...

Elsevier2016

Modeling Key Drivers of Cholera Transmission Dynamics Provides New Perspectives for Parasitology

Andrea Rinaldo, Enrico Bertuzzo, Melanie Blokesch, Lorenzo Mari

Hydroclimatological and anthropogenic factors are key drivers of waterborne disease transmission. Information on human settlements and host mobility on waterways along which pathogens and hosts disperse, and relevant hydroclimatological processes, can be a ...

2017

Chitin colonization, chitin degradation and chitin-induced natural competence of Vibrio cholerae are subject to catabolite repression

Melanie Blokesch

Although Vibrio cholerae is a human pathogen its primary habitat are aquatic environments. In this environment, V. cholerae takes advantage of the abundance of zooplankton, whose chitinous exoskeletons provide a nutritious surface. Chitin also induces the ...

Wiley-Blackwell2012

Natural transformation of Vibrio cholerae as a tool - Optimizing the procedure

Melanie Blokesch

BACKGROUND: Vibrio cholerae gains natural competence upon growth on chitin. This allows the organism to take up free DNA from the environment and to incorporate it into its genome by homologous recombination. RESULTS: Making use of this developmental progr ...

BioMed Central2010

Competence-induced type VI secretion might foster intestinal colonization by Vibrio cholerae

Melanie Blokesch

The human pathogen Vibrio cholerae exhibits two distinct lifestyles: one in the aquatic environment where it often associates with chitinous surfaces and the other as the causative agent of the disease cholera. While much of the research on V. cholerae has ...

Wiley-Blackwell2015

Ecological implications of gene regulation by TfoX and TfoY among diverse Vibrio species

Melanie Blokesch, Candice Stoudmann, Noémie Matthey, Lisa Christina Metzger

Bacteria of the genus Vibrio are common members of aquatic environments where they compete with other prokaryotes and defend themselves against grazing predators. A macromolecular protein complex called the type VI secretion system (T6SS) is used for both ...

2019