title: Putative apolipoprotein A-I, natural killer cell enhancement factor and lysozyme g are involved in the early immune response of brown-marbled grouper, Epinephelus fuscoguttatus, Forskal, to Vibrio alginolyticus.
abstract: The gram-negative bacterium, Vibrio alginolyticus, has frequently been identified as the pathogen responsible for the infectious disease called vibriosis. This disease is one of the major challenges facing brown-marbled grouper aquaculture, causing fish farmers globally to suffer substantial economic losses. The objective of this study was to investigate the proteins involved in the immune response of brown-marbled grouper fingerlings during their initial encounter with pathogenic organisms. To achieve this objective, a challenge experiment was performed, in which healthy brown-marbled grouper fingerlings were divided into two groups. Fish in the treated group were subjected to intraperitoneal injection with an infectious dose of V. alginolyticus suspended in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS), and those in the control group were injected with an equal volume of PBS. Blood samples were collected from a replicate number of fish from both groups at 4 h post-challenge and analysed for immune response-related serum proteins via two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. The results showed that 14 protein spots were altered between the treated and control groups; these protein spots were further analysed to determine the identity of each protein via MALDI-TOF/TOF. Among the altered proteins, three were clearly overexpressed in the treated group compared with the control; these were identified as putative apolipoprotein A-I, natural killer cell enhancement factor and lysozyme g. Based on these results, these three highly expressed proteins participate in immune response-related reactions during the initial exposure (4 h) of brown-marbled grouper fingerling to V. alginolyticus infection.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Marine Biotechnology, Institute of Bioscience (IBS), Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Serdang, Malaysia.
authors.forename: C-F
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Low
authors.forename: M N
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Shamsudin
authors.forename: H-Y
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Chee
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Aliyu-Paiko
authors.forename: E S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Idrus
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D016632:Apolipoprotein A-I / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D005393:Fish Diseases / Q000276:immunology* / Q000382:microbiology; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000276:immunology; D007113:Immunity, Innate; D009113:Muramidase / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D010473:Perciformes; D014735:Vibrio Infections / Q000276:immunology / Q000382:microbiology / Q000662:veterinary*; D044149:Vibrio alginolyticus
chemical_list: D016632:Apolipoprotein A-I; D009113:Muramidase
keywords: Vibrio alginolyticus; brown-marbled grouper; fish disease; immune response; proteomics