Project description:Norway is the largest producer and exporter of farmed Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) worldwide. Skin disorders correlated with bacterial infections represent an important challenge for fish farmers due to the economic losses caused. Little is known about this topic, thus studying the skin-mucus of Salmo salar and its bacterial community depict a step forward in understanding fish welfare in aquaculture. In this study, we used label free quantitative mass spectrometry to investigate the skin-mucus proteins associated with both Atlantic salmon and bacteria. In addition, the microbial temporal proteome dynamics during 9 days of mucus incubation with sterilized seawater was investigated, in order to evaluate their capacity to utilize mucus components for growth in this environment.
Project description:An effective and economical vaccine against the Piscirickettsia salmonis pathogen is needed for sustainable salmon farming and to reduce disease-related economic losses. Consequently, the aquaculture industry urgently needs to investigate efficient prophylactic measures. Three protein-based vaccine prototypes against Piscirickettsia salmonis were prepared from a highly pathogenic Chilean isolate. Only one vaccine effectively protected Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), in correlation with the induction of Piscirickettsia-specific IgM antibodies and a high induction of transcripts encoding pro-inflammatory cytokines (i.e. Il-1β and TNF-α). In addition, we studied the proteome fraction protein of P. salmonis strain Austral-005 using multidimensional protein identification technology. The analyzes identified 87 proteins of different subcellular origins, such as the cytoplasmic and membrane compartment, where many of them have virulence functions. The other two prototypes activated only the innate immune responses, but did not protect Salmo salar against Piscirickettsia salmonis. These results suggest that the knowledge of the formulation of vaccines based on P. salmonis proteins is useful as an effective therapy, this demonstrates the importance of the different research tools to improve the study of the different immune responses, resistance to diseases in the Atlantic salmon. We suggest that this vaccine can help prevent widespread infection by P. salmonis, in addition to being able to be used as a booster after a primary vaccine to maintain high levels of circulating protective antibodies, greatly helping to reduce the economic losses caused by the pathogen.
Project description:Gills of teleost fish represent a vital multifunctional organ; however, they are subjected to environmental stressors, causing gill damage. Gill damage is associated with significant losses in the Atlantic salmon aquaculture industry. Gill disorders due to environmental stressors are exacerbated by global environmental changes, especially with open-net pen aquaculture (as farmed fish lack the ability to escape those events). The local and systemic response to gill damage, concurrent with several environmental insults, are not well investigated. We performed field sampling to collect gill and liver tissue after several environmental insults. Using a 44K salmonid microarray platform, we aimed to compare the transcriptomes of pristine and moderately damaged gill tissue. The gill damage-associated biomarker genes and associated qPCR assays arising from this study will be valuable in future research aimed at developing therapeutic diets to improve farmed salmon gill health.
Project description:Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) is an environmentally and economically important organism and its gene content is reasonably well characterized. From a transcriptional standpoint, it is important to characterize the normal changes in gene expression over the course of early development, from fertilization through to the parr stage.S. salar samples were taken at 17 time points from 2 to 89 days post fertilization. Total RNA was extracted and cRNA was synthesized and hybridized to a new 44K oligo salmonid microarray platform. Quantified results were subjected to preliminary data analysis and submitted to NCBI’s Gene Expression Omnibus. Throughout the entire period of development, several thousand genes were found to be differentially regulated. This work represents the trancriptional characterization of a very large geneset that will be extremely valuable in further examination of the transcriptional changes in Atlantic salmon during the first few months of development. The expression profiles can help to annotate salmon genes in addition to being used as references against any number of experimental variables that developing salmonids might be subjected to.
Project description:Infectious diseases among fish present an important economic burden for the aquaculture and fisheries industries around the world. For example, the infectious salmon anemia virus (ISAV) is known to infect farmed Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), and results in millions of dollars of lost revenue to salmon farmers. Although improved management and husbandry practices over the last few years have minimized the losses and the number of outbreaks, the risk of new virulent isolates emerging is still a looming threat to the viability and sustainability of this industry. An understanding of the host-pathogen interactions at the molecular level during the course of an infection thus remains of strategic importance for the development of molecular tools and efficient vaccines capable of minimizing losses in the eventual case of a new outbreak. Using a 32 k cDNA microarray platform (cGRASP), we have studied various signaling pathways and immune regulated genes, activated or repressed, in Atlantic salmon head-kidney during the course of an ISAV infection. Gene expressions were measured at 5 different time-points: 6h, 24h, 3d, 7d and 16d post infection to get an overall view of changes as they occurred in time. The earliest time points showed only a few differentially expressed genes in infected fish, relative to controls, although as time progressed, many additional genes involved in key defense pathways were up-regulated including MHC type I, beta-2 microglobulin, TRIM 25 and CC-chemokine 19. During the latest stage of the infection process, many genes related to oxygen transportation were under-expressed, which correlates well with the anemia observed prior to death in Atlantic salmon infected with virulent strains of ISAV.
Project description:The present study aimed to identify the persistent molecular changes occurring in Atlantic Salmon salmon (Salmo salar) eggs after 24h exposure to high concentrations (5000 mg/L) of road salt at fertilization.
Project description:Infectious diseases among fish present an important economic burden for the aquaculture and fisheries industries around the world. For example, the infectious salmon anemia virus (ISAV) is known to infect farmed Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), and results in millions of dollars of lost revenue to salmon farmers. Although improved management and husbandry practices over the last few years have minimized the losses and the number of outbreaks, the risk of new virulent isolates emerging is still a looming threat to the viability and sustainability of this industry. An understanding of the host-pathogen interactions at the molecular level during the course of an infection thus remains of strategic importance for the development of molecular tools and efficient vaccines capable of minimizing losses in the eventual case of a new outbreak. Using a 32 k cDNA microarray platform (cGRASP), we have studied various signaling pathways and immune regulated genes, activated or repressed, in Atlantic salmon head-kidney during the course of an ISAV infection. Gene expressions were measured at 5 different time-points: 6h, 24h, 3d, 7d and 16d post infection to get an overall view of changes as they occurred in time. The earliest time points showed only a few differentially expressed genes in infected fish, relative to controls, although as time progressed, many additional genes involved in key defense pathways were up-regulated including MHC type I, beta-2 microglobulin, TRIM 25 and CC-chemokine 19. During the latest stage of the infection process, many genes related to oxygen transportation were under-expressed, which correlates well with the anemia observed prior to death in Atlantic salmon infected with virulent strains of ISAV. Atlantic salmon smolts from 2 families of Atlantic salmon were IP injected with either 0.1mL of 10e5 TCID50 mL-1 of virus or 0.1mL of sham solution (L15 culture medium) and divided equally in four 1000 L tanks: 2 duplicate tanks containing ISAV injected fish and 2 duplicate control tanks containing sham solution injected fish. Four fish per family were sampled immediately prior to injection. An additional two fish per family per tank (four fish per family total) were sampled at 6h, 24h, 3d, 7d and 16d post injection. Head-kidney was dissected from each fish and used for microarray analysis. ISAV infected Atlantic salmon were compared to non-infected Atlantic salmon for each time-point.