Immunomodulatory Effects of a Probiotic Combination Treatment to Improve the Survival of Pacific Oyster ( Larvae Against Infection by

Overview

Journal Front Immunol

Specialty Allergy & Immunology

Date 2024 Apr 23

PMID 38650950

Authors

Jennifer Hesser

Ryan S Mueller

Chris Langdon

Carla B Schubiger

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Introduction: The culture of Pacific oysters () is of significant socio-economic importance in the U.S. Pacific Northwest and other temperate regions worldwide, with disease outbreaks acting as significant bottlenecks to the successful production of healthy seed larvae. Therefore, the current study aims to describe the mechanisms of a probiotic combination in improving the survival of larvae. Specifically, we investigate changes in larval gene expression in response to infection with or without a pre-treatment of a novel probiotic combination.

Methods: Treatment groups consisted of replicates of Pacific oyster larvae exposed to a) a combination of four probiotic bacteria at a total concentration of 3.0 x 10 CFU/mL at 18 hours post-fertilization (hpf), b) pathogenic RE22 at a concentration of 6.0 x 10 CFU/mL at 48 hpf, and c) the probiotic combination at 18 hpf and RE22 at 48 hpf. RNA was extracted from washed larvae after 72 hpf, and transcriptome sequencing was used to identify significant differentially expressed genes (DEGs) within each treatment.

Results: Larvae challenged with showed enhanced expression of genes responsible for inhibiting immune signaling (i.e., , ) and inducing apoptosis (i.e., ). However, when pre-treated with the probiotic combination, these genes were no longer differentially expressed relative to untreated control larvae. Additionally, pre-treatment with the probiotic combination increased expression of immune signaling proteins and immune effectors (i.e., , ). Apparent immunomodulation in response to probiotic treatment corresponds to an increase in the survival of larvae infected with by up to 82%.

Discussion: These results indicate that infection with can suppress the larval immune response while also prompting cell death. Furthermore, the results suggest that the probiotic combination treatment negates the deleterious effects of on larval gene expression while stimulating the expression of genes involved in infection defense mechanisms.

Citing Articles

Highly Pleomorphic Strains of the Vibrio Predator and Their Outer Membrane Vesicles: A Scanning Electron Micrographic Study.

Richards G, Uknalis J, Watson M Microorganisms. 2025; 13(2).

PMID: 40005732 PMC: 11858312. DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms13020365.

References

Wang L, Song X, Song L . The oyster immunity. Dev Comp Immunol. 2017; 80:99-118. DOI: 10.1016/j.dci.2017.05.025. View

Lafont M, Vergnes A, Vidal-Dupiol J, de Lorgeril J, Gueguen Y, Haffner P . A Sustained Immune Response Supports Long-Term Antiviral Immune Priming in the Pacific Oyster, Crassostrea gigas. mBio. 2020; 11(2). PMC: 7064767. DOI: 10.1128/mBio.02777-19. View

Wang W, Zhang T, Wang L, Xu J, Li M, Zhang A . A new non-phagocytic TLR6 with broad recognition ligands from Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas. Dev Comp Immunol. 2016; 65:182-190. DOI: 10.1016/j.dci.2016.07.010. View

Shan J, Wang P, Zhou J, Wu D, Shi H, Huo K . RIOK3 interacts with caspase-10 and negatively regulates the NF-kappaB signaling pathway. Mol Cell Biochem. 2009; 332(1-2):113-20. DOI: 10.1007/s11010-009-0180-8. View

Nguyen T, Alfaro A . Targeted metabolomics to investigate antimicrobial activity of itaconic acid in marine molluscs. Metabolomics. 2019; 15(7):97. DOI: 10.1007/s11306-019-1556-8. View

Altschul S, Gish W, Miller W, Myers E, Lipman D . Basic local alignment search tool. J Mol Biol. 1990; 215(3):403-10. DOI: 10.1016/S0022-2836(05)80360-2. View

Tubiash H, Chanley P, Leifson E . Bacillary necrosis, a disease of larval and juvenile bivalve mollusks. I. Etiology and epizootiology. J Bacteriol. 1965; 90(4):1036-44. PMC: 315773. DOI: 10.1128/jb.90.4.1036-1044.1965. View

Pertea M, Kim D, Pertea G, Leek J, Salzberg S . Transcript-level expression analysis of RNA-seq experiments with HISAT, StringTie and Ballgown. Nat Protoc. 2016; 11(9):1650-67. PMC: 5032908. DOI: 10.1038/nprot.2016.095. View

Wu Y, Liang H, Wang Z, Lei Q, Xia L . A novel toll-like receptor from the pearl oyster Pinctada fucata martensii is induced in response to stress. Comp Biochem Physiol B Biochem Mol Biol. 2017; 214:19-26. DOI: 10.1016/j.cbpb.2017.08.006. View

10.

Wang L, Zhang H, Wang M, Zhou Z, Wang W, Liu R . The transcriptomic expression of pattern recognition receptors: Insight into molecular recognition of various invading pathogens in Oyster Crassostrea gigas. Dev Comp Immunol. 2018; 91:1-7. DOI: 10.1016/j.dci.2018.09.021. View

11.

Nair S, Huynh J, Lampropoulou V, Loginicheva E, Esaulova E, Gounder A . expression in myeloid cells prevents immunopathology during infection. J Exp Med. 2018; 215(4):1035-1045. PMC: 5881474. DOI: 10.1084/jem.20180118. View

12.

Elston R, Hasegawa H, Humphrey K, Polyak I, Hase C . Re-emergence of Vibrio tubiashii in bivalve shellfish aquaculture: severity, environmental drivers, geographic extent and management. Dis Aquat Organ. 2009; 82(2):119-34. DOI: 10.3354/dao01982. View

13.

Ushijima B, Richards G, Watson M, Schubiger C, Hase C . Factors affecting infection of corals and larval oysters by Vibrio coralliilyticus. PLoS One. 2018; 13(6):e0199475. PMC: 6007914. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0199475. View

14.

Modak T, Gomez-Chiarri M . Contrasting Immunomodulatory Effects of Probiotic and Pathogenic Bacteria on Eastern Oyster, , Larvae. Vaccines (Basel). 2020; 8(4). PMC: 7720132. DOI: 10.3390/vaccines8040588. View

15.

Green T, Speck P . Antiviral Defense and Innate Immune Memory in the Oyster. Viruses. 2018; 10(3). PMC: 5869526. DOI: 10.3390/v10030133. View

16.

Takeda K, Kaisho T, Akira S . Toll-like receptors. Annu Rev Immunol. 2003; 21:335-76. DOI: 10.1146/annurev.immunol.21.120601.141126. View

17.

Dubert J, Barja J, Romalde J . New Insights into Pathogenic Vibrios Affecting Bivalves in Hatcheries: Present and Future Prospects. Front Microbiol. 2017; 8:762. PMC: 5413579. DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2017.00762. View

18.

Ranjan A, Iwakuma T . Non-Canonical Cell Death Induced by p53. Int J Mol Sci. 2016; 17(12). PMC: 5187868. DOI: 10.3390/ijms17122068. View

19.

Lorenz E . TLR2 and TLR4 expression during bacterial infections. Curr Pharm Des. 2006; 12(32):4185-93. DOI: 10.2174/138161206778743547. View

20.

Gomez-Leon J, Villamill L, Salger S, Sallum R, Remacha-Trivino A, Leavitt D . Survival of eastern oysters Crassostrea virginica from three lines following experimental challenge with bacterial pathogens. Dis Aquat Organ. 2008; 79(2):95-105. DOI: 10.3354/dao01902. View