An in vitro screening method to evaluate chemicals as potential chemotherapeutants to control Aeromonas hydrophila infection in channel catfish

In Vitro Antimicrobial Activity of Nymphaea pubescens (Pink Water Lily) Leaf Extracts

This research comparatively investigates the in vitro antimicrobial activity of extracts from Nymphaea pubescens (pink water lily) leaves against pathogenic bacteria. The experimental extracts are aqueous, acetonic, and 95% ethanolic N. pubescens extracts; and the pathogenic bacteria being studied include Aeromonas hydrophila, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Vibrio vulnificus, and Vibrio harveyi, which are commonly found in freshwater fish and brackish aquatic animals. The ethanolic N. pubescens extract achieves the highest bacterial inhibitory effects against V. parahaemolyticus and V. vulnificus. The minimum inhibitory concentrations of the ethanolic extract against A. hydrophila and V. harveyi are 10 mg/mL; and 2.5 mg/mL against V. parahaemolyticus and V. vulnificus. The ethanolic N. pubescens extract is effective against V. parahaemolyticus. The high-performance liquid chromatography results show that, in the phenolic acids group, gallic acid is the most dominant (0.600-3.21% w/w), followed by sinapic acid (0.37-0.83% w/w). In the flavonoids group, catechin is the most dominant (0.02-1.08% w/w), followed by rutin (0.002-0.03% w/w). Essentially, the ethanolic N. pubescens extract can potentially be used as a natural antibiotic agent to treat bacterial infections in fish and aquatic animals.

Aeromonas veronii infection remarkably increases expression of lysozymes in grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idellus) and injection of lysozyme expression cassette along with QCDC adjuvant significantly upregulates immune factors and decreases cumulative mortality

Aeromonas veronii AvX005 is a pathogenic bacterium with high toxicity to grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idellus). The expression levels of g-type (goose-type lysozyme, Lys-g) and c-type lysozyme (chicken-type lysozyme, Lys-c) in the spleen of grass carp infected with AvX005 were significantly increased by approximately 4.5 times and 27 times, respectively. The recombinant proteins rLys-g and rLys-c produced in a recombinant expression system of Escherichia coli showed significant antibacterial activity against the pathogenic bacteria AvX005. A challenge test was conducted after rLys-g and rLys-c were expressed in grass carp L8824 liver cells, and compared with the survival rate of the control cells (46.3%), the survival rate of the experimental cells (77.6% for rLys-g and 68.6% for rLys-c) was significantly increased. Grass carp were infected with AvX005 on the second day after delivering pcDNA3.1-lys-g and pcDNA-lys-c with the Quil A/cholesterol/DDA/Carbopol (QCDC) adjuvant, and both pcDNA3.1-lys-g and pcDNA-lys-c provided 70% relative protection for grass carp. The activity of lysozyme and alkaline phosphatase in the serum of grass carp was significantly increased after injection of DNA. The expression of the immune factors IgM, C3 and IL8 in the kidney was upregulated to varying degrees for pcDNA3.1-lys-g and immune factors C3 and IgM was upregulated for pcDNA-lys-c. The results indicated that pcDNA3.1-lys-g and pcDNA-lys-c may be used as immunostimulants to protect grass carp from the pathogenic bacterium AvX005.

Functional Characterization of Probiotic Potential of Novel Pigmented Bacterial Strains for Aquaculture Applications

The bioprospecting proficient of novel pigmented probiotic strains with respect to aquaculture industry was unexplored hitherto. In this study, we investigated the probiotic potential of novel pigmented bacterial strains isolated from the indigenous soil sediments in their vicinal habitats, which were screened for their antimicrobial activity against aquatic pathogens using agar well diffusion assay. The strains namely Exiguobacterium acetylicum (S01), Aeromonas veronii (V03), and Chryseobacterium joostei (V04) were phenotypically identified and confirmed by 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. Further characterization revealed that strains S01 and V03 survive relatively in lower pH and higher bile salt concentrations and possess good adherence ability and broad-spectrum antibiotic susceptibility. The isolate S01 exhibited the higher adhesion ability to hydrocarbons (82%) and mannose-specific adhesion (msa) gene expression. Additionally, the probiotic effects were evaluated in Artemia nauplii fed with algae supplemented with S01, V03, and V04 strains (2.7 × 10⁷ cfu/mL) for 3 days under axenic environment. We observed a significant increase (p < 0.05) in the survival rate of Artemia nauplii treated with S01 (83 ± 5%) and V03 (55 ± 5%), whereas the survival rate was only 30 ± 0% in the untreated group. Moreover, the individual length (IL) was increased in treated group S01 (156.7 ± 2.2 μm), V03 (146.1 ± 3.4 μm), and V04 (134.4 ± 2.5 μm) compared with untreated group (116.0 ± 4.8 μm). Our results revealed that E. acetylicum S01 exhibits desirable functional probiotic attributes compared to A. veronii and C. joostei and it would be a promising probiotic strain, which can be efficiently used in the aquaculture applications.

Transcriptome profiling and digital gene expression analysis of the skin of Dybowski's frog (Rana dybowskii) exposed to Aeromonas hydrophila

Recently, populations of Rana dybowskii, an important amphibian species in Northeast China, have decreased, mainly owing to the disease caused by Aeromonas hydrophila. However, effective control methods have not yet been developed. In order to explore the immune responses of R. dybowskii upon exposure to A. hydrophila infection, Illumina high-throughput transcriptome sequencing and digital gene expression (DGE) technology were employed to investigate transcriptomic changes in the skin of R. dybowskii exposed to A. hydrophila. In this work, a total of 26,244,446 transcriptome sequencing reads were obtained and assembled into 109,089 unique unigenes using de novo assembly, and a total of 37,105 unigenes (34.0%) were functionally annotated against the non-redundant (Nr), Swiss-Prot, Cluster of Orthologous Groups of Proteins (COG), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), and Gene Ontology (GO) databases. Gene expression changes in the skin tissue of R. dybowskii exposed to A. hydrophila were investigated by a tag-based DGE system, and a total of 1435 significantly differentially expressed genes were identified, including 460 that were up-regulated and 975 that were down-regulated, indicating a large change in the host transcriptome profile exposed to A. hydrophila. Among these, 478 genes were associated with immune-relevant pathways, metabolic pathways, cellular components, growth, migration, and muscle and hormone signaling pathways. We confirmed the differential expression of 106 immune-relevant genes associated with innate and adaptive immune responses. Our data provide a fairly comprehensive molecular biology background for the deeper understanding of the amphibian immune system following A. hydrophila infection.

Vaccination of channel catfish with extracellular products of Aeromonas hydrophila provides protection against infection by the pathogen

Aeromonas hydrophila, a Gram-negative bacterium, is one of the economically-important pathogens in modern aquaculture. Among various traits, extracellular products (ECP) secreted by the bacterium are considered to be essential factors for virulence. Whether vaccination with the ECP could produce immune protection in catfish against the pathogen was determined in this study. The results showed that fish vaccinated with ECP had 100% of relative percent survival (RPS) when challenged with the pathogen two weeks post vaccination. The anti-ECP serum from vaccinated fish could aggregate cells of homogeneous bacteria as well as other virulent strains (isolates) of A. hydrophila but not an A. veronii isolate and a low virulent field isolate. The agglutination titers increased from two weeks to four weeks post immunization and sustained a high level at week seven when the RPS remained at 100%. The anti-ECP serum could also provide naïve fish with immediate protection against A. hydrophila as evidenced by passive immunization. Immunoblotting analysis showed that the anti-ECP serum contained antibodies that bound to specific targets, including protein and lipopolysaccharide-like molecules, in the ECP. Mass spectrometric analysis identified following putative proteins that may serve as important immunogens: chitinase, chitodextrinase, outer membrane protein85, putative metalloprotease, extracellular lipase, hemolysin and elastase. Findings revealed in this study suggest that, while ECP prepared in a conventional and convenient way could be a vaccine candidate, further characterization of antibody-mediated targets in the ECP would uncover quintessential antigens for the future development of highly efficacious vaccines.

G-protein coupled receptor 18 (GPR18) in channel catfish: expression analysis and efficacy as immunostimulant against Aeromonas hydrophila infection

The objectives of this study were: 1) to determine the transcriptional profiles of G-protein coupled receptor 18 (GPR18) in channel catfish after infection with Aeromonas hydrophila compared to that in healthy catfish; 2) to determine whether over-expression of GPR18 in catfish gill cells will offer protection against infection of A. hydrophila; 3) to determine whether recombinant pcDNA-GPR18 could be used as an immunostimulant to protect channel catfish against A. hydrophila infection. Quantitative PCR revealed that the transcription levels of GPR18 in all tissues of infected catfish were significantly (P < 0.05) induced except in the intestine. When pcDNA3.2-vectored recombinant GPR18 was transfected in catfish gill cells G1B, the over-expression of pcDNA-GPR18 offered significant (P < 0.05) protection to G1B cells against A. hydrophila infection. When channel catfish were intraperitoneally injected with QCDCR adjuvant formulated pcDNA-GPR18 and challenged with a highly virulent A. hydrophila strain at 1-, 2-, 14-, and 28-days post treatment, pcDNA-GPR18 offered 50%, 100%, 57%, and 55% protection to channel catfish, respectively. Macrophages of fish treated with pcDNA-GPR18 produced significantly (P < 0.05) higher amounts of reactive oxygen species and nitric oxide than that of fish treated with pcDNA vector alone. In addition, serum lysozyme activity of catfish injected with pcDNA-GPR18 was significantly (P < 0.08) increased. Taken together, our results suggest that pcDNA-GPR18 could be used as a novel immunostimulant to provide immediate protection to channel catfish against A. hydrophila infection.

Apolipoprotein A1 in channel catfish: transcriptional analysis, antimicrobial activity, and efficacy as plasmid DNA immunostimulant against Aeromonas hydrophila infection

The objectives of this study were to: 1) determine transcriptional profiles of apolipoprotein A1 (ApoA1) in collected channel catfish tissues after infection with Aeromonas hydrophila by bath immersion; 2) investigate whether recombinant channel catfish apolipoprotein A1 produced in Escherichia coli expression system possesses any antimicrobial activity against A. hydrophila; 3) evaulate whether recombinant channel catfish apolipoprotein A1 plasmid DNA could be used as immunostimulant to protect fish against A. hydrophila infection. Quantitative PCR revealed that the transcription levels of ApoA1 in infected catfish were significantly (P < 0.05) more induced in the anterior kidney. Recombinant apoA1 produced in E. coli expression system exhibited lytic activity against Gram-positive Micrococcus lysodeikticus and Gram-negative A. hydrophila. When pcDNA3.2-vectored recombinant apoA1 was transfected in channel catfish gill cells G1B, the over-expression of pcDNA-ApoA1 offered significant (P < 0.05) protection to G1B cells against A. hydrophila infection. When channel catfish were intraperitoneally injected with QCDCR adjuvant formulated pcDNA-ApoA1 and challenged with a highly virulent A. hydrophila strain AL-09-71 at two days post injection, pcDNA-ApoA1 injection offered 100% protection to channel catfish. Macrophages of fish injected with pcDNA-ApoA1 produced significantly (P < 0.05) higher amounts of reactive oxygen species and nitric oxide than that of fish injected with pcDNA vector alone. Our results suggest that pcDNA-ApoA1 could be used as a novel immunostimulant to offer immediate protection to catfish against A. hydrophila infection.

Recombinant goose-type lysozyme in channel catfish: lysozyme activity and efficacy as plasmid DNA immunostimulant against Aeromonas hydrophila infection

The objectives of this study were: 1) to investigate whether recombinant channel catfish lysozyme-g (CC-Lys-g) produced in Escherichia coli expression system possesses any lysozyme activity; and 2) to evaluate whether channel catfish lysozyme-g plasmid DNA could be used as an immunostimulant to protect channel catfish against Aeromonas hydrophila infection. Recombinant CC-Lys-g produced in E. coli expression system exhibited significant (P < 0.05) lytic activity against Gram-positive Micrococcus lysodeikticus and Gram-negative A. hydrophila. When pcDNA3.2-vectored recombinant channel catfish lysozyme-g (pcDNA-Lys-g) was transfected in channel catfish gill cells G1B, the over-expression of pcDNA-Lys-g offered significant (P < 0.05) protection to G1B cells against A. hydrophila infection. When channel catfish were intraperitoneally injected with pcDNA-Lys-g along with an adjuvant QCDCR, the transcriptional level of Lys-g was significantly (P < 0.05) increased. When pcDNA-Lys-g injected fish was challenged with a highly virulent A. hydrophila strain AL-09-71, pcDNA-Lys-g offered 100% protection to channel catfish at two days post DNA injection. Macrophages of fish injected with pcDNA-Lys-g produced significantly (P < 0.05) higher amounts of reactive oxygen species and nitric oxide than that of fish injected with pcDNA vector alone at two days post DNA injection. Taken together, our results suggest that pcDNA-Lys-g could be used as a novel immunostimulant to offer immediate protection to channel catfish against A. hydrophila infection.

Chicken-type lysozyme in channel catfish: expression analysis, lysozyme activity, and efficacy as immunostimulant against Aeromonas hydrophila infection

To understand whether chicken-type lysozyme (Lys-c) in channel catfish was induced by infection of Aeromonas hydrophila, the transcriptional levels of Lys-c in skin, gut, liver, spleen, posterior kidney, and blood cells in healthy channel catfish was compared to that in channel catfish infected with A. hydrophila by bath immersion. Quantitative PCR revealed that the transcription levels of Lys-c in infected catfish were significantly (P < 0.05) induced in all five tissues tested as well as in blood cells. Recombinant CC-Lys-c produced in Escherichia coli expression system (R-CC-Lys-c) exhibited significant (P < 0.05) lytic activity to Gram-positive Micrococcus lysodeikticus and Gram-negative A. hydrophila. When pcDNA3.2-vectored recombinant channel catfish lysozyme-c (pcDNA-Lys-c) was transfected in channel catfish gill cells G1B, the over-expression of pcDNA-Lys-c offered significant (P < 0.05) protection to G1B against A. hydrophila infection. When channel catfish were intraperitoneally injected with QCDCR adjuvant formulated pcDNA-Lys-c and challenged with a highly virulent A. hydrophila strain AL-09-71 at 1-, 2-, 14-, and 28-days post treatment, pcDNA-Lys-c offered 75%, 100%, 60%, and 77% protection to channel catfish, respectively. Macrophages of fish treated with pcDNA-Lys-c produced significantly (P < 0.05) higher amounts of reactive oxygen species and nitric oxide than that of fish treated with pcDNA vector alone. Taken together, our results suggest that pcDNA-Lys-c could be used as a novel immunostimulant to protect channel catfish against A. hydrophila infection.

Expression and activity of recombinant proaerolysin derived from Aeromonas hydrophila cultured from diseased channel catfish

Aerolysin is one of the putative toxins in extracellular products (ECP) produced by Aeromonas hydrophila, an important pathogen of catfish. To better understand the molecular mechanism and mode of action of this toxin, proaerolysin-coding gene was cloned from the genomic DNA of an A. hydrophila strain, cultured from diseased channel catfish, and heterologously expressed in E. coli. Functional recombinant proaerolysin was obtained, revealing some unique properties. The purified recombinant proaerolysin was inactive but could be activated by treatment with furin, trypsin, and ECP although different treatments produced different cleavage profiles and resulted in differential hemolytic and cytotoxic activities. The highest activity was observed from aerolysin processed by furin while treatment of proaerolysin with trypsin and ECP resulted in reduced activities. The unprocessed proaerolysin, though not hemolytic in vitro, had the same cytopathic effect on cultured walking catfish gill cells as the furin-processed had. In in vivo assay, the recombinant proaerolysin was found to be lethal to catfish when injected via intraperitoneal (IP) route. The lethal toxicity was acute and dose-dependent, as observed in IP injection of live A. hydrophila. This is the first recombinant proaerolysin confirmed to be a virulence factor; the recombinant protein could be used to further evaluate virulence, pathogenicity and antigenicity associated with A. hydrophila infection.

Biochemical and molecular characterization of the novobiocin and rifampicin resistant Aeromonas hydrophila vaccine strain AL09-71N+R compared to its virulent parent strain AL09-71

To understand the fitness cost of novobiocin- and rifampicin-resistance in an attenuated Aeromonas hydrophiila vaccine strain AL09-71 N+R compared to its virulent parent strain AL09-71, colony size, cell size, cell proliferation rate, chemotactic response, and the ability to invade catfish gill cells of the two strains were compared. Our results revealed that: (1) the cell size and the colony size of AL09-71 N+R was significantly (P<0.05) smaller than that of AL09-71; (2) the proliferation rate of AL09-71 N+R was significantly (P<0.05) slower than that of AL09-71; (3) AL09-71 N+R had a significantly (P<0.05) lower chemotactic response to catfish mucus than that of AL09-71; 4) the ability of AL09-71 N+R to invade catfish gill cells was significantly (P<0.05) lower than that of AL09-71. To understand whether target site mutation might play a role in antibiotic resistance, novobiocin's target site DNA gyrase subunit B gyrB and rifampicin's target site RNA polymerase subunit B rpoB were sequenced from the two strains. Our results revealed the following five mutations: (1) two missense mutations (CGC to ATC resulting in arginine/R to serine/S; TAC to TGC resulting in tyrosine/Y to cysteine/C) between AL09-71 gyrB and AL09-71 N+R gyrB; (2) three missense mutations (GAC to AAC resulting in aspartic acid/D to asparagine/N; CTG to CCG resulting in leucine/L to proline/P; CTG to CCG resulting in leucine/L to proline/P) between AL09-71 rpoB and AL09-71 N+R rpoB. To determine whether any unique DNA sequences were present in AL09-71 but absent in AL09-71 N+R, PCR-select bacterial genome subtractive hybridization was performed. Of 96 clones selected from the subtractive genomic DNA library, 32 sequences were found. None of the 32 sequences was confirmed to be present in AL09-71 but absent in AL09-71 N+R. At the transcription level, 29 of the 32 genes were found to be expressed greater than 10-fold in AL09-71 N+R compared to that in AL09-71.

Identification, virulence, and mass spectrometry of toxic ECP fractions of West Alabama isolates of Aeromonas hydrophila obtained from a 2010 disease outbreak

In West Alabama, disease outbreaks in 2009 caused by Aeromonas hydrophila have led to an estimated loss of more than $3 million. In 2010, disease outbreak occurred again in West Alabama, causing losses of hundreds of thousands of pounds of market size channel catfish. During the 2010 disease outbreak in West Alabama, four isolates of A. hydrophila were cultured from the kidney tissues of diseased channel catfish. Both analytical profile index (API) 20 E biochemical tests and 16S-23S rRNA sequencing results confirmed the four isolates as A. hydrophila. Virulence studies revealed that the four isolates were highly virulent to channel catfish by intraperitoneal injection, with LD50 value of ≈ 1.3 × 10(5)CFU/fish. Extracellular proteins (ECPs) of A. hydrophila are well known to be toxic to fish. Therefore, ECPs of the four 2010 West Alabama isolates of A. hydrophila were characterized in this study. The ECPs of the four 2010 isolates were found to be toxic to channel catfish fingerlings, with LD50 value of 16 μg/fish. Thirty ECP fractions were obtained from the ECPs of the 2010 isolates of A. hydrophila by cation-exchange chromatography, of which nine fractions were found to be toxic to catfish gill cells and channel catfish fingerlings. Mass spectrometry identified 228 proteins from the nine toxic fractions, of which 23 were shared by toxic fractions, including well known virulence factors such as hemolysin, aerolysin, elastase (metalloprotease), nuclease, and 5'-nucleotidase. Hemolytic activity, protease activity, and nuclease activity of the four isolates were found to be significantly (P<0.05) higher than that of a reference A. hydrophila strain AL98-C1B. Our results might shed light on the possible virulence factors of the highly virulent West Alabama isolates of A. hydrophila.

Identification of Bacillus strains for biological control of catfish pathogens

Bacillus strains isolated from soil or channel catfish intestine were screened for their antagonism against Edwardsiella ictaluri and Aeromonas hydrophila, the causative agents of enteric septicemia of catfish (ESC) and motile aeromonad septicaemia (MAS), respectively. Twenty one strains were selected and their antagonistic activity against other aquatic pathogens was also tested. Each of the top 21 strains expressed antagonistic activity against multiple aquatic bacterial pathogens including Edwardsiella tarda, Streptococcus iniae, Yersinia ruckeri, Flavobacterium columnare, and/or the oomycete Saprolegnia ferax. Survival of the 21 Bacillus strains in the intestine of catfish was determined as Bacillus CFU/g of intestinal tissue of catfish after feeding Bacillus spore-supplemented feed for seven days followed by normal feed for three days. Five Bacillus strains that showed good antimicrobial activity and intestinal survival were incorporated into feed in spore form at a dose of 8×10(7) CFU/g and fed to channel catfish for 14 days before they were challenged by E. ictaluri in replicate. Two Bacillus subtilis strains conferred significant benefit in reducing catfish mortality (P<0.05). A similar challenge experiment conducted in Vietnam with four of the five Bacillus strains also showed protective effects against E. ictaluri in striped catfish. Safety of the four strains exhibiting the strongest biological control in vivo was also investigated in terms of whether the strains contain plasmids or express resistance to clinically important antibiotics. The Bacillus strains identified from this study have good potential to mediate disease control as probiotic feed additives for catfish aquaculture.

Attenuation of a virulent Aeromonas hydrophila with novobiocin and pathogenic characterization of the novobiocin-resistant strain

AIM

To determine whether novobiocin resistance strategy could be used to attenuate a virulent Aeromonas hydrophila AH11P strain and to characterize the growth and pathogenic differences between the novobiocin-resistant strain and its virulent parent strain AH11P.

METHODS AND RESULTS

A novobiocin-resistant strain AH11NOVO was obtained from a virulent Aer. hydrophila strain AH11P through selection of resistance to novobiocin. AH11NOVO was found to be avirulent to channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus), whereas AH11P was virulent. When AH11NOVO vaccinated channel catfish were challenged with AH11P at 14 days postvaccination, relative per cent of survival of vaccinated fish was 100%. The cell proliferation rate of AH11NOVO was found to be significantly (P < 0.05) less than that of AH11P. In vitro motility assay revealed that AH11NOVO was nonmotile, whereas AH11P was motile. AH11NOVO had significantly (P < 0.05) lower in vitro chemotactic response to catfish mucus than that of AH11P. Although the ability of AH11NOVO to attach catfish gill cells was similar to that of AH11P, the ability of AH11NOVO to invade catfish gill cells was significantly (P < 0.05) lower than that of AH11P.

CONCLUSIONS

The novobiocin-resistant AH11NOVO is attenuated and different from its parent AH11P in pathogenicity.

SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY

The significantly lower chemotactic response and invasion ability of AH11NOVO compared with that of its virulent parent strain AH11P might shed light on the pathogenesis of Aer. hydrophila.

Evaluation of an in vitro cell assay to select attenuated bacterial mutants of Aeromonas hydrophila and Edwardsiella tarda to channel catfish

AIMS

To evaluate the feasibility of using an in vitro cell assay to select attenuated bacterial mutants.

METHODS AND RESULTS

Using catfish gill cells G1B, the feasibility of using an in vitro assay instead of in vivo virulence assay using live fish to select attenuated bacterial mutants was evaluated in this study. Pearson correlation analysis between in vitro virulence to G1B cells and in vivo virulence of Aeromonas hydrophila and Edwardsiella tarda revealed that there was a significant correlation between the two (r = -0.768, P value = 3.7 × 10(-16)).

CONCLUSIONS

The in vitro cell assay might be initially used to screen large quantities of bacteria to select attenuated mutants of catfish pathogens.

SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY

The in vitro cell assay using catfish gill cells to identify attenuated mutants of catfish pathogens will reduce cost involved in the in vivo virulence assay that requires many fish and aquariums.