Investigating the Effect of Bacterial Coinfections on Juvenile and Adult Green-Lipped Mussels (Perna canaliculus)

Date
2023-10-03
Authors
Azizan, Awanis
Carter, Jack
Venter, Leonie
Young, Tim
Sharma, Shaneel S
Chen, Tony
Alfaro, Andrea C
Supervisor
Item type
Journal Article
Degree name
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Wiley
Abstract

The New Zealand's Greenshell™ mussel (Perna canaliculus) aquaculture industry is being affected by summer mortality events associated with increasing seawater temperatures and pathogens. In this study, challenge experiments were conducted to investigate, for the first time, the effects of pathogen coinfection on the survivability and haemolymph immune responses of juvenile and adult mussels. Animals were injected with marine broth (control), Vibrio mediterranei, Photobacterium swingsii, or a mixture of V. mediterranei and P. swingsii. Then, mussel survival was monitored for 72 h, and haemolymph was sampled for bacterial quantification and metabolomics analyses at 24- and 48-h post challenge. Coinfected adults and juveniles showed 100% mortality. Bacterial colony counts in haemolymph decreased as infection time continued, especially in juveniles. The haemolymph metabolome of mussels exposed to single bacterial species and coinfection showed response changes largely within energy metabolism. Mussels infected with V. mediterranei exhibited increased metabolites linked to the glutathione pathway, branched-chain amino acids, and others over time, supporting structural functions. Conversely, mussels infected with P. swingsii showed no metabolic differences over time. The coinfection group exhibited large decreases in important metabolites, such as fatty acids as an alternative energy source and amino acids to support immune functions and protein synthesis.

Description
Keywords
30 Agricultural, Veterinary and Food Sciences , 3005 Fisheries Sciences , Emerging Infectious Diseases , Infectious Diseases , Infection , 14 Life Below Water , 3 Good Health and Well Being , 0704 Fisheries Sciences , Fisheries , 3005 Fisheries sciences
Source
Journal of the World Aquaculture Society, ISSN: 0893-8849 (Print); 1749-7345 (Online), Wiley, 55(1), 386-403. doi: 10.1111/jwas.13009
Rights statement
© 2023 The Authors. Journal of the World Aquaculture Society published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of World Aquaculture Society. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.