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Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, September 2008, p. 3006-3012, Vol. 52, No. 9
0066-4804/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AAC.00023-08
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Inducible Resistance of Fish Bacterial Pathogens to the Antimicrobial Peptide Cecropin B{triangledown}

Ulysses W. Sallum{dagger} and Thomas T. Chen*

Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut 06269

Received 7 January 2008/ Returned for modification 19 March 2008/ Accepted 2 May 2008

Cecropin B is a cationic antimicrobial peptide originally isolated from the diapausing pupae of the giant silk moth, Hylphora cecropia. Cecropin B elicits its antimicrobial effects through disruption of the anionic cell membranes of gram-negative bacteria. Previous work by our laboratory demonstrated that a constitutively expressed cecropin B transgene conferred enhanced resistance to bacterial infection in medaka. The development of antibiotic resistance by pathogenic bacteria is a growing problem. The potential for fish bacterial pathogens to develop resistance to cecropin B was addressed in this study. Four fish bacterial pathogens were selected for the study based on their importance in aquaculture. Vibrio anguillarum, Vibrio vulnificus, and Yersinia ruckeri all exhibited inducible resistance to cecropin B. The inducible resistance of these three pathogens was correlated with reversible changes in their ultrastructures, as observed by scanning electron microscopy. V. anguillarum was demonstrated to become more adhesive to a CHSE-214 cell monolayer and to cause increased cumulative mortality in medaka following exposure to cecropin B. This work demonstrates that the resistance of fish bacterial pathogens to cecropin B is inducible and suggests that resistance to other cationic antimicrobial peptides may occur through similar means. The observed changes in ultrastructure and infectivity suggest that resistance to antimicrobial peptides is an integral part of the pathogenesis of fish gram-negative bacterial pathogens.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Connecticut, 91 N. Eagleville Rd., U-3125, Storrs, CT 06269. Phone: (860) 486-5481. Fax: (860) 486-8415. E-mail: Thomas.Chen{at}uconn.edu

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 12 May 2008.

{dagger} Present address: Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Department of Dermatology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 40 Blossom St., Boston, MA 02114.

Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, September 2008, p. 3006-3012, Vol. 52, No. 9
0066-4804/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AAC.00023-08
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





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