Genetic Diversity of the Fish Pathogen Aeromonas Salmonicida Demonstrated by Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA and Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis Analyses
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DISEASES OF AQUATIC ORGANISMS Vol. 39: 109-1 19.2000 Published January 14 Dis Aquat Org Genetic diversity of the fish pathogen Aeromonas salmonicida demonstrated by random amplified polymorphic DNA and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis analyses Bronagh O'hIcil, Gilles Olivier2, Richard Powelll.* 'Department of Microbiology, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland 'Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Gulf Fisheries Centre, PO Box 5030, Moncton, New Brunswick E1C 9K1, Canada ABSTRACT: The current taxonomy of Aeromonas salmonicida includes 4 subspecies. A. salrnonicida subsp. salmonicida is associated with salrnonid furunculosis, and A. salmon~cidasubsp. achromogenes, A. salmonicida subsp. masoucida, and A. salmonicida subsp. smithia are strains that show variation in some biochenlical properties. This classification does not readly encompass isolates from a wide range of fish hosts currently described as atypical A. salmonic~da.This study examined 17 typical strains, 39 atypical strains and 3 type A. sahonicida subspecies strains for genetic similarity using the random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) techniques. On the basis of RAPD- and PFGE-derived profiles, similarity matrices and dendrograms were constructed. The results showed that species A. salmonicida constituted a genetically heterogeneous group of strains, encompassing within an homogeneous or clonal lineage comprised solely of typical strains and the A. salmonicida subsp. salmonicida type strain. KEY WORDS: Aeromonas salmonicida . Fish pathogens . Taxonomy . RAPD . PFGE INTRODUCTION achromogenes (Smith 1963), A. salmonicida subsp. masoucida (Kimura 1969) and A. salmonicida subsp. Aeromonas salmonicida is the bacterial agent associ- smithia (Austin et al. 1989) represent aberrant strains ated with furunculosis, a disease generally confined to that show variation in some biochemical properties. salrnonid fish species (Popoff 1984). The organism is This classification scheme is complicated by 2 obser- readily recovered from the kidney or surface lesions of vations. First, repeated isolations of Aeromonas sal- diseased fish and is conventionally identified by the monicida subsp. masoucida and subsp. smithia have occurrence of dark brown pigmented colonies on tryp- not been reported since their initial description (Wik- tone soya agar after incubation at 20 to 25OC for 2 to lund & Dalsgaard 1998). Second, there have been 4 d. The traditional description of members of this spe- many reports describing isolations of A. salmonicida cies is: non-motile, fermentative, Gram-negative rods from chronic ulcerative diseases found in both sal- which do not grow at 37°C and which produce catalase monid (Evelyn 1971, Paterson et al. 1980) and non- and oxidase (Popoff 1984). The current taxonomy of salmonid species including carp (Bootsma et al. 197?), A. salmonicida includes 4 subspecies; A. saLmonicida minnow (Hastein et al. 1978), goldfish (Elliot & Shotts subsp. salmonicida is associated with salmonid furun- 1980, Whittington et al. 1987),Atlantic cod (Cornick et culosis and has been arbitrarily termed typical to dis- al. 1994), eel (Kitao et al. 1985), sand-eels (Dalsgaard & tinguish this taxon from all other forms of A. salrnoni- Paulsen 1986),pike (Wiklund 1990),flounder (Wiklund cida (Austin & Austin 1993). A. salmonicida subsp. & Bylund 1991, 1993) and turbot (Pedersen et al. 1994). These isolates are termed atypical A. salmonicida and differ in various phenetic traits including colony mor- 'Corresponding author. E-mail: nchard [email protected] phology, growth intensity and temperature range, a 8 Inter-Research 2000 Resale of full article not perrn~tted 110 Dis Aquat Org requirement for salt (1% w/v sodium chloride), fer- listed in Table 1. Typical and atypical A. salmonicida mentation of carbohydrates, amlno acid decarboxyla- strains were collected and the strain designations tion, and oxidase reaction (Austin & Austin 1993, Wik- along with host data and location of isolation (where lund & Dalsgaard 1998). Clinical disease signs are known) are also listed in Table 1. All typical strains often characterized by cutaneous ulceration in com- were cultivated in tryptone soya medium (Oxoid, parison to the general septicaemia of typical salrnonid Hampshire, UK) at 2Z°C for 2 d. All atypical strains furunculosis. The significance of this atypical group of were cultivated on either nutrient agar (Oxoid), or A. salmonicida isolates and their expanded host-range columbia base (Oxoid) supplemented with 7 % human with respect to the health of both feral and cultured blood, and incubated at 22°C for between 2 and 5 d. fish stocks is unclear. However, infections by atypical Genomic DNA extraction. Cells were harvested strains are a cause of increasing economic concern in from 10 m1 cultures by centrifugation, 8500 X g for aquaculture (Austin & Austin 1993), and epizootic 10 min (Centrifuge 5416, Eppendorf, Hamburg, Ger- infections of wild fish stocks have also been reported many), and genomic DNA extraction was performed (Wiklund et al. 1994).Finally, their position in terms of using a modification of a previously described method the current taxonomy of A. salmonicida is unresolved. (Ausubel et al. 1992).Briefly, the bacterial pellets were Characterization of genomes is a useful method for resuspended and washed in 1 m1 of sterile H20, fol- both taxonomic and epizootiological studies of bacter- lowed by centrifugation for 5 min at 9650 X g (MSE ial pathogens, and has been applied to Aeromonas sal- Micro Centaur, Sanyo, UK) and resuspension in 400 p1 monicida. DNA:DNA reassociation analysis (Belland & TE buffer (10 mM Tris-HC1, 1 mM EDTA, pH 8.0). The Trust 1988), plasmid profiling (Nielsen et al. 1993), cells were lysed by the addition of 200 p1 of lysozyme ribotyping (Nielsen et al. 1994),DNA probes (Gustaf- (10 mg ml-') (Boehringer Mannheim GmbH, Germany) son et al. 1992, Hiney et al. 1992). restriction endo- and incubation at 37OC for 60 min. The preparation nuclease analysis (McCormick et al. 1990), random was then incubated for 10 min with 40 p1 of Proteinase amplified polymorphic DNA analysis (Hanninen et al. K (10 mg ml-') (Boehringer Mannheim) at room tem- 1995, Miyata et al. 1995), and pulsed-field gel elec- perature, followed by the addition of sodium dodecyl trophoresis (PFGE) (Umelo & Trust 1998) have concen- sulphate (SDS) to a final concentration of 1.0% and trated on A. salmonicida subsp. salmonicida, revealing incubation at room temperature until the preparation this group to be an extremely homogeneous taxon. was clear. For the atypical strains, the preparation was Only the DNA:DNA reassociation (Belland & Trust further incubated at 60°C for 5 min to ensure complete 1988) and PFGE (Umelo & Trust 1998) analyses lysis. Eighty p1 of 0.5 M EDTA were added, mixed by included atypical strains (15 and 16 strains respec- gentle agitation and the solution was deproteinised by tively), and these reports concluded that the atypical sequential phenol and chloroform-isoamyl alcohol strains are genetically diverse when compared to typi- (24:l v/v) extraction. The genomic DNA was precipi- cal strains. tated in ethanol and resuspended in TE buffer. The Here we report a genotypic analysis of 39 strains of DNA concentration was estimated by visual compari- atypical Aeromonas salmonicida in comparison with l? son with standard DNA size markers after electro- typical strains and th.e type strains for 3 A. salmonicida phoresis through a 1% agarose (BioGene Ltd, Cam- subspecies (subsp. smithia was unavailable). Initially, bridge, UK) TAE gel stained with 0.5 pg ml-' ethidium all strains were examined by screening with a putative bromide (Sigma Chemical Co., St Louis, MO, USA). A, salmonicida species-speci.fic oligodeoxynucleotide 16s rRNA gene analysis. The PCR primer desig- DNA probe. Subsequently, the strain collection along nations, sequences, and reference positions on with the type A. salmonicida strains were analyzed alignments of 16s rRNA sequences are EB, 5'- using the random amplified polymorphic DNA (Berg et GAGTTTGATCCTGGCTCAG-3', (bases 3-25) and al. 1994) and PFGE (Schwartz & Cantor 1984) tech- UN, 5'-ACGGNWACCTTGTTACGAGTT-3' (bases niques. Finally, the genetic similarities between both 1423-1402) (standard IUPAC nomenclature: N is G, A, the typical and atypical strains and the diversity en- T, or C; W is A or T). Both PCR primers have been compassed bx species A. salmonicida were evaluated. described as specific for most bacterial species (Lane 1991). The 50 p1 reaction contained 10x KC1 buffer (Biotaq. Bioline Ltd, UK) including 1.5 mM MgCl?, MATERIALS AND METHODS 200 pM dNTPs (Pharmacia, Uppsala, Sweden), 1. U Tag DNA polymerase (Biotaq. Bioline Ltd), 170 pm01 of Aeromonas salmonicida strains. Aeromonas sal- primer EB, 157 pm01 of primer UN and 20 ng of monicida type strains were obtained from the National genomic DNA, overlayed with 30 1-11 of mineral oil. Collection of Industrial and Manne Bacteria (NCIMB), Negative controls containing no target DNA were in- Aberdeen, Scotland, and the strain designations are cluded. The reactions were then amplified using a O'hIci et al.. Genetic diversity of Aeromonas salmonicida 111 TRIO-thermoblock thermocycler (Bio- Table 1. Strains of Aeromonas saln~onicidaexamined in this study In paren metra GmbH, Gottingen, Germany) theses: c, Isolated from cultivated host; W, Isolated from wild host; a, isolate, through 30 cycles of 1 min at 94"C, from host In aquarium; U, host status unknown,