통영산 물렁증 멍게 피막의 편모충 감염

Abstract

멍게 물렁증 원인규명의 일환으로 2011년 3월에 경남 통영에서 채집된 물렁증 멍게와 건강한 멍게를 대상으로 병리학적 검사를 실시한 결과 물렁증 멍게의 경우 체액량, 비만도 및 피막지수가 현저히 감소하였다. 물렁증 멍게의 피막 imprint 관찰과 배양 시 2개의 편모를 가진 원생동물이 확인되었으며, 물렁증 멍게에 대한 이들 편모충의 감염률은 97.5%인 반면 건강한 멍게에서는 검출되지 않아 본 편모충은 물렁증 멍게에서 특이적으로 검출되는 것으로 조사되었다. 조직학적 검사결과 물렁증 멍게에서 피막섬 유질다발의 붕괴 현상이 관찰되었으며, 편모충으로 추정되는 원생동물들이 다수 관찰되었다. 통영산 물렁증 멍게에서 확인된 편모충은 일본에서 검출된 그것과 매우 유사한 형태적 특징을 갖고 있으며, 향후 공격실험 등 물렁증 유발과 편모충과의 연관성에 대한 추가 연구가 요망된다. The edible ascidian Halocynthia roretzi is a commercially important fisheries resource in Korea. However, for the last several years, outbreaks of mass mortalities of the species have been occurring along the south and east coasts of Korea, where most ascidians are produced. Although it is known that tunic-softness syndrome is associated with these mortality events, the agent causing the syndrome has not yet been confirmed. To determine the agent causing tunic-softness syndrome, healthy and diseased ascidians were collected in March 2011 from Tongyeong, on the south coast of Korea, and were used for biological and pathological investigations. The results showed that diseased ascidians exhibited remarkably reduced body fluid, fatness index, and tunic index compared with healthy specimens. Interestingly, bi-flagellated protozoans were observed specifically in the tissue imprints and tunic cultures of diseased ascidians at an occurrence rate of 97.5%. Histological observation showed that the thickness of the tunics of diseased ascidians was reduced by half, and irregular structure and breakdown of the tunic fiber bundles were observed. In particular, flagellate-like cells were observed in the diseased ascidians. Our study clearly shows that bi-flagellated protists are present only in the softened ascidians, suggesting that the flagellates are partly or entirely associated with soft-tunic syndrome. Accordingly, further investigations to verify the effects of the flagellates found in the present study on soft-tunic syndrome should be conducted.