Iranian Journal of Fisheries Sciences 18(4) 915-923 2019 DOI: 10.22092/ijfs.2019.118391 Isolation and characterization of from the lesion of juvenile sea cucumber Holothuria scabra (Jaeger, 1938) with symptom of skin ulceration disease

Tangestani M. 1, 2*; Kunzmann A.1

Received: July 2016 Accepted: August 2017

Abstract Echinoderm diseases have attracted little interest in contrast to the other commercial marine organisms. This study reports the pathogenesis pattern of juvenile Holothuria scabra. 11 pure bacteria were isolated from lesions of juvenile H. scabra with the symptoms of skin ulceration disease. Phylogenetic identification based on 16S rRNA gene sequences analysis revealed that they belonged to the genera Arcobacter bivalviorum, citrea, Pseudoalteromonas sp., Vibrio azureus, V. fortis, V. owensii, V. parahaemolyticus, V. rotiferianus, V. tubiashi and Vibrio sp..This study is the first report which find V. owensii, V. azureus and V. fortis as potential pathogens of holothuroids. All isolated bacteria showed in vitro susceptibility to the common antibiotics imipenem, chloramphenicol and amoxicillin/clavulanic acid. These antibiotics might be effective in reducing the incidence of the skin ulceration disease in case of emergency.

Keywords: Pathogen, Skin ulceration, Vibrio, Sea cucumber, Beche-de-mer

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1-Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Ecology GmbH, Fahrenheitstraße 6, Bremen 28359, Germany 2-Department of Chemical and Process Engineering, University of Canterbury, Christchurch 8041, New Zealand *Corresponding author's Email: [email protected] 916 Tangestani and Kunzmann, Isolation and characterization of bacteria from the lesion of…

Introduction During a study in our centre on 50 In response to growth in human juvenile H. scabra imported from population and food demands, Indonesia, we faced to two dead aquaculture has been developed greatly animals with white spots and some in the last decades. Resulted products animals with similar but fewer skin have extensively exploited as food lesions. The imported specimens were supply (Cao et al., 2015) or as raw already kept for ecophysiological materials for ornamental, industrial, and experiments in the experimental aquaria pharmaceutical applications (Maki et facilities (MAREE), of the Leibniz al., 2014; Venkata Mohan et al., 2015). Centre for Tropical Marine Ecology One of the fastest growing (ZMT) Bremen, Germany, before we aquaculture industries is sea cucumber lose them due to the disease. farming (Conand et al., 2014). Sea In this study the potential pathogenic cucumber, also named Bêche-de-mer or bacteria isolated from the lesions of Gamat, are marine invertebrates from infected juveniles H. scabra were the class Holothuroidea, which have identified by using 16S rRNA gene long been used in traditional Asian sequence analysis. Then the in vitro medicines and cuisine. Interest in these susceptibility of isolated bacteria was kind of animals is growing because of tested against a range of antibiotics. their capability to produce a range of high-value bioactive molecules Materials and methods (Bordbar et al., 2011; Pereira et al., Sample collection 2014). Sea cucumber farming has been Domestic Juvenile H. scabra were developed only in recent decades but supplied from Lombok, Indonesia and rapidly expanded in countries such as were shipped with a regular delivery of Australia, China, the Galápagos Islands, animals for ornamental purposes, Downloaded from jifro.ir at 7:42 +0330 on Thursday September 30th 2021 Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia and the involving commercial companies. Philippines. Diseases can lead to big Three infected juveniles with skin economic losses in this industry but lesions were used for this study. Before they are less well-studied than diseases taking samples for microbial in the other aquaculture industries experiments, the skin and lesions were (Yasoda et al., 2006). washed by 98% ethanol to eliminate the Skin ulceration syndrome is a highly risk of contamination by external infectious and a lethal disease in contaminants such as waterborne Holothuroids. Symptoms appear as microorganisms and normal aquatic white spots on the skin which rapidly microflora. Skin samples were then spread over the skin and expand to the taken from the center of each lesion and lower tissues led to death in infected the soft slimy tissues around each lesion individuals. In Holothuria scabra the using sterile cotton swabs and a sterile invasive organisms have been reported scalpel. as bacteria, fungi, and protozoa. (Deng et al., 2009; Lavitra et al., 2009). Iranian Journal of Fisheries Sciences 18(4) 2019 917

Bacterial isolation 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis Skin samples were inoculated into Bacterial cells were harvested from an liquid marine broth (Carl Roth, overnight culture in marine broth. DNA Germany), as well as direct plating on was extracted from these using marine agar (1.5% w/v agar). Cultures Bacterial and Yeast Genomic DNA

were incubated at 30º C for 24 hours. Purification Kit (EURX Gene 11 different colonies were purified by MATRIX) followed by PCR further streaking onto marine agar amplification of the 16S rRNA with plates followed by use of Gram’s stain universal primer pairs 27F and 1492R and micro- and also macroscopic (Biomers.net GmbH). observation of colonies. Purified strains The PCR reactions were performed subcultured onto agar slant in tubes and using a Mastercycler® nexus gradient stored at 4°C. These were used as thermal cycler (Eppendorf, Germany) working stock cultures. For long term in 50 μl reaction volumes each storage, densely grown bacteria were containing 0.25 μl of Tag DNA collected from agarised cultures and polymerase (Sigma), 1 μl of each mixed with 2 mL of an aqueous primer at a final concentration of 20 solution of 16% glycerol and marine pmol, 1 μl of dNTPs at a concentration broth. 0.5 mL aliquots of these cell of 10 mM, 5 μl of PCR buffer, 5 μl

suspensions were placed in 1.5 mL MgCl2, DNA template (based on DNA cryotubes and preserved at -80 ºC. concentration) and DDW (to reach to the reaction volume). The PCR Antibiotic sensitivity test reactions were performed using the Antibiotic sensitivity of isolated following thermal cycling conditions: bacteria was tested using antibiotic- initial denaturation at 95°C for 45 impregnated discs (BD BBL™ Sensi- seconds followed by 35 cycles of Downloaded from jifro.ir at 7:42 +0330 on Thursday September 30th 2021 Disc™) on Muller-Hinton Agar (Carl denaturation at 95°C for 45 s, annealing Roth, Germany) with the salinity at 55°C for 45 s and extension at 72°C adjusted to 3.2 % by adding sea salt to for 2 min. The reaction was then cooled the base medium. The following to 4°C for 5 mins. 5 µl of the PCR antibiotics were tested using the reactions were resolved on a 1% quantities stated in each disc: agarose gel stained with Stain G tetracycline (30 µg), chloramphenicol (SERVA, Germany) to verify the size (30 µg), ampicillin (10 µg), of the amplicons. The remaining PCR erythromycin (15 µg), amoxicillin reaction was treated with ExoSAP-IT /clavulanic acid (30 µg), ciprofloxacin (Affymetrix, USA), and sequenced at (5 µg), imipenem (10 µg), penicillin (10 StarSEQ (Mainz, Germany). U) and vancomycin (30 µg). The The closest phylogenetic relative of diameters of inhibitory zones were each isolate was identified by measured with digital callipers after 21 comparison of each 16S rRNA gene hours incubation at 30ºC. sequence to the GenBank database in the National Centre for Biotechnology 918 Tangestani and Kunzmann, Isolation and characterization of bacteria from the lesion of…

Information (NCBI). The Microbial 1, 6_3-1, 7_3-2, 8_3-3, 9_4, 10_5-1, Nucleotide BLAST program and 11_5-2. (http://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) and the Mega6 program Bacterial identification based on 16S (http://www.megasoftware.net) were rRNA gene sequence analysis used to choose closely related strains The majority of isolates were species of and identify the 16S rRNA gene Vibrio and Pseudoalteromonas sequence similarities of phylogenetic (), and one isolate neighbors. was a species of Arcobacter (Epsilonproteobacteria). Results Isolates shared ≥ 99% pairwise identity Bacterial isolates to Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Eleven Gram-negative bacterial strains Pseudoalteromonas citrea, Arcobacter were isolated from the lesions of bivalviorum, Vibrio sp., Vibrio infected juveniles Holothuria scabra. rotiferianus, Pseudoalteromonas sp., These were designated as: Strains Vibrio owensii, Vibrio azureus, Vibrio 1_S1-1, 2_S2-1, 3_S2-2, 4_S2-3, 5_S6- fortis and Vibrio tubiashii (Table 1).

Table 1: Identification of bacteria isolated from skin lesions on the surface of juveniles Holothuria scabra. Accession Closest match in Identity Strains Phylum number Gene Bank (%) 1_S1-1 JN 188420 Vibrio parahaemolyticus 99 Gammaproteobacteria 2_S2-1 GU 726872 Pseudoalteromonas citrea 99 Gammaproteobacteria 3_S2-2 HE 565358 Arcobacter bivalviorum 99 Epsilonproteobacteria 4_S2-3 HF 937146 Vibrio sp. 100 Gammaproteobacteria 5_S6-1 JF 907572 Vibrio rotiferianus 99 Gammaproteobacteria 6_3-1 AB 029824 Pseudoalteromonas sp. 100 Gammaproteobacteria

Downloaded from jifro.ir at 7:42 +0330 on Thursday September 30th 2021 7_3-2 HQ 908697 Vibrio owensii 99 Gammaproteobacteria 8_ 3-3 AB 029824 Pseudoalteromonas sp. 99 Gammaproteobacteria 9_ 4 HQ 908716 Vibrio azureus 100 Gammaproteobacteria 10_5-1 HQ 449972 Vibrio fortis 99 Gammaproteobacteria 11_5-2 NR 118093 Vibrio tubiashii 99 Gammaproteobacteria

Antibiotic susceptibility results chloramphenicol and Compared to the standard susceptibility amoxicillin/clavulanic acid zone diameters provided by the demonstrated in vitro inhibition of all suppliers of the antibiotics, imipenem, isolated bacteria (Table 2).

Table 1: Antibiotic susceptibility of isolated bacteria. Shaded cells indicate positive sensitivity. Antibiotics and inhibitory zones (mm) Strains AmC C AMP E VA CIP P IPM TE 1_S1-1 M S R M R M R S M 2_S2-1 S S S S M S M S M 3_S2-2 S S S S R S S S S 4_S2-3 M S R S R S R S M Iranian Journal of Fisheries Sciences 18(4) 2019 919

Table 2 continued: 5_S6-1 S S R M R S R S M 6_3-1 S S S S M S S S S 7_3-2 S S R M M S R S S 8_3-3 S S S S S S S S S 9_4 S S R M M S R S S 10_5-1 S S S S S S S S S 11_5-2 S S S S M S S S S AmC amoxicillin/clavulanic acid, C chloramphenicol, AMP ampicillin, E erythromycin, VA vancomycin, CIP ciprofloxacin, P penicillin, IPM imipenem and TE tetracycline (R; resistant, S; sensitive, M; medium resistant)

Discussion pathogens of aquatic organisms such as Diseases in sea cucumbers can be fish, shellfish, and crustaceans. The serious obstacles for commercial Harveyi clade consists of eleven aquaculture, causing huge economic species, which are major pathogens of loss (Xiyin et al., 2004; Yin-Geng, et many aquatic organisms: V. harveyi, al., 2004; Purcell and Eeckhaut, 2005; V.rotiferianus, V. alginolyticus, V. Liu et al., 2010). Skin ulceration or campbellii, V. parahaemolyticus, V. white spot quickly expands to an mytili, V. natriegens, V. azureus, V. invasive lesion that destroys the vicinal communis, V. jasicida and V. owensii and sub-epidermal tissues and led to (Rivera-Posada et al., 2011). death within 3-5 days (Becker et al., Vibriosis is a common fatal disease 2004). in fish and other aquaculture animals Skin ulceration disease with almost (Chatterjee and Haldar, 2012). Rotting the same symptoms has been reported edge syndrome and off-plate syndrome, worldwide on different Holothuroids skin ulceration disease, peristome including Apostichopus japonicus, oedema disease and infected dermal

Downloaded from jifro.ir at 7:42 +0330 on Thursday September 30th 2021 Isostichopus fuscus and H. scabra tissues of the echinoderm A. japonicus (Becker et al., 2004; Deng et al., 2009). (Rivera-Posada et al., 2011; Sakai, A comparison between isolated 2011), and white spot in H. scabra are bacteria in this study to those isolated infectious diseases caused by Vibrio sp. from other similar studies showed that (Austin and Zhang, 2006; Chatterjee species of Vibrio always have been the and Haldar, 2012). majority of bacteria isolated from V. parahaemolyticus has been infected samples. This was the case for reported to be associated with dermal H. scabra in Australia and New tissue disease in the echinoderm Caledonia (Morgan et al., 2000), I. Amphipholis gracillima (Rivera-Posada fuscus in Ecuador (Mercier et al., 2005) et al., 2011), whilst Becker et al. (2004) and A. japonicus in China (Yin-Geng isolated the microorganism from skin et al., 2004; Ma et al., 2006; Deng et lesions in juvenile H. scabra. al., 2009). Vibrio belongs to a cluster of V. tubiashii is a pathogen for larvae closely related species, named the of bivalve mollusks (Hada et al., 1984) Harveyi clade which are major common and has recently been isolated from 920 Tangestani and Kunzmann, Isolation and characterization of bacteria from the lesion of…

lesions of skin ulcerative syndrome of attempted using inoculation of healthy A. japonicus. The pathogenicity of the animals by each of the cultured isolates. strain was confirmed by artificial If lesions develop and typical infection (Deng et al., 2009). Although symptoms of infection observe, then re- not a member of the Harveyi clade, it isolation of a particular strain from should be considered as a potential those lesions would be further pathogen for juveniles H. scabra. confirmation of its pathogenicity. V. rotiferianus has been isolated from Exploring the origin of an infection is skin necrotic lesions in echinoderms crucial to the development of effective Acanthasther planci and Linckia methods for disease control. Antibiotic guildingi (Rivera-Posada, 2012), but therapy could be effective in an there is no evidence of its pathogenicity emergency to decrease the loss of in sea cucumbers. capital after observation of disease Pseudoalteromonas sp. and P. symptoms in commercial aquaculture tetraodonis have been shown to be facilities. Although, use of such associated with skin ulceration and inhibitory agents in aquaculture is not peristome tumescence in cultured A. encouraged. Estimation of the necessity japonicus (Liu et al., 2010). There is no of an antibiotic, duration of application evidence of pathogenicity in marine and the MIC are essential knowledge to organisms by P. Citrea, but since this reduce the risk of development of bacterium is a lipase producer pathogenic bacteria to antibiotic (Sivasubramanian et al., 2011), the resistance. assumption here is that bacterial lipase enhances the primary lesions by Acknowledgements decomposition of fatty acids within the This research was supported by Leibniz skin tissue. Centre for Tropical Marine Ecology Downloaded from jifro.ir at 7:42 +0330 on Thursday September 30th 2021 A. bivalviorum was first isolated (ZMT), Germany and Centre for from shellfish by Levican et al. (2012). Science and Technology of the Non- Some species of the genus have been Aligned and Other Developing found to be human and farm animal Countries (NAM S&T Centre) in the enteropathogens (Collado and Figueras, scheme of a joint fellowship in tropical 2011), but its pathogenicity in coastal marine ecology and holothuroids has not been reported. biogeochemistry to the first author. This study is the first to find V. We are grateful to Constanze von owensii, V. azureus and V. fortis as Waldthausen and Stefanie Bröhl for potential pathogens of holothuroids. their technical support. Authors also The present work suggests that the thank Dr. Achim Meyer for his support white spot in juveniles H. scabra is a in the molecular part of the work and bacterial disease. To confirm that, an in Dr Paul Broady for his help in vivo study is required in which each proofreading the article. isolate is tested for pathogenicity in healthy animals. Infection could be Iranian Journal of Fisheries Sciences 18(4) 2019 921

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