Abstract
Abstract Two antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) of marine origin, tachyplesin from the Japanese horseshoe crab, Tachypleus tridentatus, and pleurocidin-amide from the winter flounder, Pseudopleuronectes americanus, were tested for their potential effectiveness in disease treatment in oyster aquaculture. Tachyplesin had a greater antimicrobial effect than pleurocidin-amide against a range of gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, with minimum inhibitor concentrations in the range of 0.625 to 5 μg mL−1. Tachyplesin (50 μg mL−1) was also more effective than pleurocidin-amide (250 μg mL−1) against the oyster protozoan parasite Perkinsus marinus, reducing its viability to 9% versus 22% in vitro. Both peptides were unaffected by variations in pH and salinity that would be encountered in marine culture conditions. Candidate algal and yeast for expression and feed-based delivery of recombinant AMPs were largely unaffected by tachyplesin and pleurocidin at concentrations that inhibited bacterial growth but were sens...
Highlights
The expansion of the molluscan bivalve aquaculture industry is constrained by disease causing pathogens, and contamination by human pathogenic bacteria, with corresponding risks to the bivalve and the consumer
The viability of P. marinus was reduced to 9% with 50 mg mL–1 of tachyplesin, and to approximately 50% with 50 mg mL–1 of pleurocidin-amide
We show here that tachyplesin is more suitable than pleurocidinamide as a candidate for use in a feed-based delivery system for shellfish aquaculture
Summary
The expansion of the molluscan bivalve aquaculture industry is constrained by disease causing pathogens, and contamination by human pathogenic bacteria, with corresponding risks to the bivalve and the consumer. Over the past two decades there has been a concerted effort to isolate and characterize antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) as an alternative to antibiotics (Mookherjee & Hancock 2007, Pereira 2006), as well as for the creation of disease-resistant strains of fish through transgenesis (Buchanan et al 2001, Morvan et al 1994, Sarmasik et al 2002) These peptides are a major component of innate immune systems, and are found in many tissues and cell types in numerous species, including mammals, insects, fish, and amphibians. Their mechanisms of action and structures are varied, but they all kill microorganisms rapidly (Pereira 2006)
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