{
  "id": 5484523,
  "title": "How thermostable direct haemolysin (TDH) diverges from TDH-related haemolysin (TRH)? Reassessing haemolysins in Vibrio parahaemolyticus through functional and structural representation learning",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/03/how-thermostable-direct-haemolysin-tdh-diverges-from-tdh-related",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-09-03T00:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "bioRxiv",
    "slug": "biorxiv",
    "url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.02.748974v1?rss=1"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Vibrio parahaemolyticus (Vp) is a significant foodborne pathogen, causing harm to public health and the seafood industry. Among its pathogenic traits, thermostable direct haemolysin (TDH) and TDH related haemolysin (TRH) serve as major virulence indicators. However, the differences between TDH and TRH at various levels have not been thoroughly explored. This study aimed to analyze TDH and TRH comprehensively using sequence data from databases, representation learning, and structure prediction.\n\nAnalyzing the amino acid sequences of TDH and TRH from 2131 and 99 records, respectively, showed diverse mutations and a distinct separation between the two toxins at the amino acid level. The identity between TDH and TRH varied from 56.1 to 67.4%. Despite this, a protein language model derived embeddings indicated high functional similarity, while structural inference by AlphaFold revealed distinct clustering patterns.\n\nThe study found that the transition from TDH to TRH is sparked by accumulated genome-wide residue changes, rather than a small number of key mutations. These point mutations cause significant structural differences between TDH and TRH. TRH forms an alpha-helical tail, which TDH lacks, resulting in different mechanisms for disrupting host membranes, such as pore-forming and ion flux induction.\n\nThese findings provide a detailed understanding of the functional and structural properties of Vp haemolysins, highlighting how multi-dimensional sequence variations impact their role in Vp pathogenicity. Understanding these differences can help researchers design experiments using Vp strains with tdh and trh genes to investigate environmental fitness.",
  "summary": "Vibrio parahaemolyticus (Vp) is the major foodborne pathogen transmitted via shellfish products, which has posed significant threats to modern public health and resulted in significant economic damage to the seafood industry. Numerous studies have documented diverse aspects of Vp pathogenicity, among which thermostable direct haemolysin (TDH) and TDH related haemolysin (TRH) are considered as the…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "bioRxiv",
        "title": "Structural characterization of a pseudaminic acid-modified lateral flagellar filament from Vibrio alginolyticus",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/03/structural-characterization-of-a-pseudaminic-acid-modified-lateral",
        "published": "2026-09-03T00:00:00.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}