Strategies for Disruption of Biofilm Formation Ability and Intricate Quorum Sensing Networks in Aquaculture Vibrio Pathogens

Abstract

Vibriosis is a serious disease problem in Indian aquaculture. In the past few years, disease problem particularly caused by Vibrio harveyi has been severe in hatcheries, and many units were shut down due to resistance against multiple antibiotics. Since two decades, antibiotics are widely used in aquaculture if bacterial infections are serious. Due to indiscriminate use of antibiotics, Vibrio sp. acquired resistance against multiple antibiotics. Moreover, recently, increasing literature clearly emphasized that antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) genes are transferred to human pathogens. Pertinantly, the quest for finding alternative methods to control multiple antibiotic-resistant vibrios is of utmost priority to have sustainable development in aquaculture. One such alternative and promising method is interruption of bacterial cell-to-cell communication, called quorum sensing (QS). The QS system of V. harveyi comprises of four parallel systems that converge onto a single regulatory pathway, which in turn regulates a number of virulence genes required by the V. harveyi for its pathogenesis. Several studies reported that disruption of QS by enzymatic or chemical inactivation in V. harveyi is triumphant in controlling vibriosis, with some selective pressure for evolution of resistance.