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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Stuttgart, Arkansas » Harry K. Dupree Stuttgart National Aquaculture Research Cntr » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #361474

Research Project: The Role of Mucosal Surfaces and Microflora in Immunity and Disease Prevention

Location: Harry K. Dupree Stuttgart National Aquaculture Research Cntr

Title: Fish and porcine mucus stimulate F. columnare biofilm formation

Author
item Farmer, Bradley
item Lange, Miles
item Abernathy, Jason

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/21/2019
Publication Date: 3/14/2019
Citation: Farmer, B.D., Lange, M.D., Abernathy, J.W. 2019. Fish and porcine mucus stimulate F. columnare biofilm formation [abstract]. Aquaculture 2019, March 7-11, 2019, New Orleans, Louisana. p. 349.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Flavobacterium columnare is the bacterium responsible for producing the fish disease known as columnaris. Columnaris disease has had a significant impact on the production of different freshwater finfish species. Because of these losses, efforts to understand the biological processes of F. columnare including the development of biofilms and their contribution to disease are ongoing. The current work sought to evaluate the effect of mucus derived from different sources on the formation of biofilms among different F. columnare isolates. F. columnare has long been observed to cause extensive lesions on the skin and gills through circumventing the mucus layer which then allows biofilm formation to occur. Our data indicates the addition of fish and porcine mucus at varying concentrations significantly stimulates F. columnare biofilm formation. This result could be observed among both Genomovar I and II F. columnare isolates. We have previously demonstrated that differential gene expression is observed between the planktonic and biofilm cells when stimulated with fish mucus. This work will no doubt serve as a basis for future studies on understanding how bacterial cell signaling leads to the development of biofilms and ultimately in the in vivo progression of columnaris disease.