Outer membrane vesicles in Vibrio species: Roles in biofilm formation and pathogenesis
Authors:Kumari Shambhavi and Durg Vijai Singh
doi: 10.15698/mic2026.06.877
Volume 13, pp. 198 to 217, published 02/06/2026.
Department of Biotechnology, School of Earth, Biological and Environmental Sciences, Central University of South Bihar, Gaya 824236, India.
Keywords:
Vibrio species, Outer Membrane Vesicle, Extracellular Vesicles, Membrane Vesicles, Bacterial Extracellular Vesicles, Biofilm Formation, Vaccine, Immunity
Corresponding Author(s):
Conflict of interest statement:
The Authors declare that they have read the contents of the paper and do not have any competing interests.
Please cite this article as:
Kumari Shambhavi, Durg Vijai Singh (2026). Outer membrane vesicles in Vibrio species: Roles in biofilm formation and pathogenesis. Microbial Cell 13: 198-217. doi: 10.15698/mic2026.06.877
© 2026 Shambhavi and Singh. This is an open-access article released under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which allows the unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are acknowledged.
Abstract:
Outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) have been increasingly recognized as common mediators of bacterial physiology in Gramnegative bacteria, including Vibrio species. The degree and function of OMV production can differ among strains and even within a single species. The secretion of OMVs is a prevalent trait among many Vibrio species, particularly in pathogenic organisms such as Vibrio cholerae, Vibrio vulnificus, and Vibrio parahaemolyticus. The OMVs released by these organisms are often associated with infection, transport of virulence factors into host cells, defense against stress, biofilm formation, flagella rotation, transportation of active enzymes, signaling molecules in the surrounding environment, and facilitating bacterial translocation. All of these are advantageous to the bacteria. These OMVs also possess immunogenic properties that regulate the innate and adaptive immune responses, which are beneficial to host cells. Few species, such as Vibrio ordalii, Vibrio coralliilyticus, Vibrio natriegens Vibrio alginolyticus, and Vibrio europaeus, have been recently studied for the first time that secrete OMVs; future research is necessary to determine any other activities that these vesicles may possess beyond those that are now documented.