Project description:Vibrio species distribute ubiquitously in marine and coastal environments, with implications for severe infectious diseases in human and marine animals. However, precisely what defensive strategies the host employ against Vibrio pathogens with distinct virulence remain poorly understood. Being an ecologically relevant host, the oyster Crassostrea hongkongensis serves as an excellent model for elucidating mechanisms underlying host-Vibrio interactions. In this study, we generated one mutant Vibrio alginolyticus strains (V. alginolyticus△VSCC) with attenuated virulence by knocking out the VSCC encoding gene, one of the core components of type III secretion systems (T3SSs), based on the evidence that V. alginolyticus△VSCC infection leads to a marked reduction in the apoptotic rate of hemocyte hosts, compared to V. alginolyticusWT control. In comparative proteomics, it was revealed that distinct immune responses were elicited upon encounter with V. alginolyticus strains of different virulence. Quite strikingly, the peroxisomal and apoptotic pathways are activated by V. alginolyticusWT infection, whereas phagocytosis and cell adhesion were enhanced in V. alginolyticus△VSCC infection. Collectively, we conclude that adaptation in host immune responses is determined in part by pathogen virulence, which safeguards elimination of invading bacteria in efficient and timely manners.
Project description:In this study, we attempt to characterize the transcriptomic profile of the Asian seabass brains collected from the male and female sexes. The objective is to identify genes that show sexually dimorphic expression in the brain of this species. For this experiment, Asian seabass were collected from the Marine Aquaculture Center of the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore. There were no treatments carried out in this experiment. Four brains from adult male seabass (5 years old) with M3-type testis and four brains from adult female seabass (5 years old) with F3-type ovaries were used in this experiment. (Gonads were examined by histology and classified according to sexual maturation status as described by Guiguen and colleagues (Guiguen et al. Environmental Biology of Fishes, 1994)).
Project description:In this study, we attempt to characterize the transcriptomic profile of the Asian seabass brains collected from the male and female sexes. The objective is to identify genes that show sexually dimorphic expression in the brain of this species. For this experiment, Asian seabass were collected from the Marine Aquaculture Center of the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore. There were no treatments carried out in this experiment. Four brains from adult male seabass (5 years old) with M3-type testis and four brains from adult female seabass (5 years old) with F3-type ovaries were used in this experiment. (Gonads were examined by histology and classified according to sexual maturation status as described by Guiguen and colleagues (Guiguen et al. Environmental Biology of Fishes, 1994)). Total 8 samples. Male Brain : 4 Female Brain : 4
Project description:Vibrio alginolyticus is a Gram-negative marine bacterium. A limited population of the organisms causes acute gastroenteritis in humans. In this study, Vibrio alginolyticus wild type strain EPGS is compared with the mutants of Ser-Thr kinase PpkA and phosphatase PppA, after cultured for 7h, in Luria-Bertani containing medium 3 % NaCl at 30 C. Our goal is to determine the ppkA and pppA regulon. Three wild type and five mutant Vibrio alginolyticus samples were compared.
Project description:In this study, we attempt to characterize the transcriptomic profile of the Asian seabass gonads at various developmental stages. The protandric Asian seabass or barramundi (Lates calcarifer) typically matures as a male at approximately 2–4 years of age and then changes sex to a female in later years. For this experiment, Asian seabass of several ages were collected from the Marine Aquaculture Center of the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore and from farms around Singapore. There were no treatments carried out in this experiment. The gonads were examined by histology and classified according to sexual maturation status as described by Guiguen and colleagues (Guiguen et al. Environmental Biology of Fishes, 1994). Altogether, we analyzed 22 gonadal samples that could be classified into six different types of gonads.
Project description:In recent years, due to the influence of climate change and rising sea temperature, the incidence of Vibrio alginolyticus infections is increasing, and becoming the second most common Vibrio species reported in human illness. Therefore, better understanding of the pathogenic mechanism of V. alginolyticus infection is urgently needed. Vvrr1 (Vibrio virulence regulatory RNA 1) is a new found ncRNA predicted to be closely related to the adhesion ability of V. alginolyticus through the previous RNA-seq. In this study, the target genes of Vvrr1 were fully screened and verified by constructing Vvrr1 over-expressed strains and proteome sequencing technology.
Project description:In this study we attempt to elucidate some of the pathways involved in the immune response to vaccination and subsequent disease challenge using a transcriptomic approach. We exposed, via intra-peritoneal injection, three months old Asian seabass (Lates calcarifer) to a Streptococcus iniae vaccine. A control group was also set up where no vaccine was injected. Spleen and head kidney samples were collected at one and seven days post vaccination for transcriptomic analysis. At this point, there are four groups per organ: Day 1 vaccinated, Day 1 control, Day 7 vaccinated and Day 7 control. Subsequently, a pathogen challenge was carried out three weeks later and spleen and head kidneys were sampled at 25-29 hours post challenge for transcriptomic analysis. For control, mock challenged was carried out. At this point, there are four groups per organ: unvaccinated challenged, unvaccinated mock challenged, vaccinated challenged and vaccinated mock challenged.
Project description:Purpose: Next-generation sequencing (NGS) has revolutionized analysis of the immune response to V. alginolyticus in Epinephelus coioides larvae, we used high-throughput deep sequencing technology to study the effect of infection on gene expression. Methods: Epinephelus coioides larvae (30-days-old) were injected with V. alginolyticus , and fish were sacrificed at 24 h after infection. Ten wild-type Epinephelus coioides larvae were used to build an EST library for transcriptome analysis. The library products were prepared for sequencing analysis using an Illumina HiSeq™ 2000. Raw data were saved as fastq files. The following were removed: reads with adaptors, reads in which over 10% bases were unknown, and low quality reads (i.e., the percentage of bases of quality value ≤ 5 exceeds 50% in the read). Clean reads were mapped to reference sequences using SOAP aligner/soap2 . The randomness of RNA fragmentation was used to construct the library, and the numbers of reads mapped to the reference sequence were calculated. The RPKM method (Reads Per kb per Million reads) was used to calculate gene expression level, and differentially expressed genes (DEGs) Results: A total of 114,851,002 reads were assembled, consisting of 9,687,355,560 nucleotides; these were further assembled into 209,082 contigs with a mean length of 372 bp. Gene ontology (GO) analysis of the transcriptome revealed 12 cellular component subcategories, 16 molecular function subcategories, and 42 biological process subcategories (P value < 0.05). A total of 32664 Epinephelus coioides genes were mapped to the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG); 1504 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were subsequently identified, in 12 categories (P value < 0.05). Vibrio infection affected the expression of genes involved in complementation, coagulation cascades, pathogen (Staphylococcus aureus) infection, phagosome activity, antigen processing, and the antigen presentation pathway. Conclusions: We conclude that the complement pathway of innate immunity and the hepicidin antimicrobial peptide may play important roles in the defense of Epinephelus coioides larvae against V. alginolyticus, and the immune response may activate at 4h after bacterial infection. These results implicate the complement pathway signal pathway in immunity during V. alginolyticus infection at early developmental stages, enhancing our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the immune response to Vibrio infection in Epinephelus coioides.