Abstract
Introduction
Miamiensis avidus is the major parasitic pathogen affecting the olive flounder, Paralichthys olivaceus. Recent epidemiological studies have shown that M. avidus infections are becoming increasingly severe and frequent in the olive flounder farming industry.
Objectives
This study aimed to evaluate the infection density of M. avidus in various organs of the olive flounder including spleen, liver, kidney, stomach, esophagus, intestine, gill, muscle, heart, and brain. Olive flounders were collected from a local fish farm.
Methods
Each fish was injected subcutaneously with 2.75 × 103 CFU M. avidus/ fish. Organs infected with M. avidus were obtained after 7 and 25 days. Each organ was examined for parasitic infection using real-time PCR. The primers were designed according to the sequences of 28 s in M. avidus, which was used as a target gene.
Results
Each organ was examined for parasitic infection using real-time PCR. The primers were designed according to the sequences of 28 s in M. avidus, which was used as a target gene. The levels of 28 s rRNA were used to calculate quantitative gene copy number. Real-time PCR of brain (60.58 ± 38.41), heart (64.03 ± 62.40), muscle (6.10 ± 3.12), gill (5.06 ± 4.56), intestine (2.38 ± 1.69), esophagus (4.22 ± 3.72), stomach (3.25 ± 2.68), kidney (0.81 ± 0.15), liver (0.63 ± 0.15), and spleen (11.18 ± 4.08) was performed at 3 days post-infection. At 7 days post-infection, heart (754.15 ± 160.85), brain (247.90 ± 62.91), spleen (38.81 ± 17.52), liver (7.47 ± 4.54), kidney (10.90 ± 3.41), stomach (19.50 ± 8.86), esophagus (39.37 ± 14.10), intestine (17.54 ± 12.63), gill (38.27 ± 20.20), and muscle (33.62 ± 15.07) were measured.
Conclusion
The present study, together with previous data, demonstrated that the gill, intestine, and brain are the major target organs of M. avidus in olive flounder. However, this does not mean that tiny amounts of DNA extracted from those tissues of fish during the early stages of infection can guarantee successful detection and/or quantification of M. avidus. Our data suggest that the brain might be the best organ for detection in the early stage.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alvarez-Pellitero P, Palenzuela O, Padros F, Sitja-Bobadilla A, Riaza A, Silva R, Aran J (2004) Histophagous scuticociliatids (Ciliophora) parasitizing turbot Scophthalmus maximus: morphology, in vitro culture and virulence Folia. Parasitol (Praha) 51:177–187
Di Cicco E, Paradis E, Stephen C, Turba ME, Rossi G (2013) Scuticociliatid ciliate outbreak in Australian potbellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis (Lesson, 1827): clinical signs, histopathologic findings, and treatment with metronidazole. J Zoo Wildl Med 44:435–440
Griffin MJ, Pote LM, Camus AC, Mauel MJ, Greenway TE, Wise DJ (2009) Application of a real-time PCR assay for the detection of Henneguya ictaluri in commercial channel catfish ponds. Dis Aquat Org 86:223–233
Harikrishnan R, Jin CN, Kim JS, Balasundaram C, Heo MS (2012) Philasterides dicentrarchi, a histophagous ciliate causing scuticociliatosis in olive flounder, Philasterides dicentrarchi–histopathology investigations. Exp Parasitol 130:239–245
Jin CN et al (2009) Histopathological changes of Korea cultured olive flounder, Paralichthys olivaceus due to scuticociliatosis caused by histophagous scuticociliate. Philasterides dicentrarachi Vet Parasitol 161:292–301
Jung SJ, Kitamura S, Song JY, Oh MJ (2007) Miamiensis avidus (Ciliophora: Scuticociliatida) causes systemic infection of olive flounder Paralichthys olivaceus and is a senior synonym of Philasterides dicentrarchi. Dis Aquat Org 73:227–234
Kelley GO et al (2006) Evaluation of quantitative real-time PCR for rapid assessments of the exposure of sentinel fish to Myxobolus cerebralis. Parasitol Res 99:328–335
Lee JH, Park JJ, Choi JH, Kang SY, Kang YJ, Park KH (2017) Effects of clioquinol on the scuticociliatosis-causing protozoan Miamiensis avidus in olive flounder Paralichthys olivaceus. J Fish Dis
Moustafa EM, Naota M, Morita T, Tange N, Shimada A (2010) Pathological study on the scuticociliatosis affecting farmed Japanese flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus) in Japan. J Vet Med Sci 72:1359–1362
Nguyen TL, Lim YJ, Kim DH, Austin B (2016) Development of real-time PCR for detection and quantitation of Streptococcus parauberis. J Fish Dis 39:31–39
Parama A, Arranz JA, Alvarez MF, Sanmartin ML, Leiro J (2006) Ultrastructure and phylogeny of Philasterides dicentrarchi (Ciliophora, Scuticociliatia) from farmed turbot in. NW Spain Parasitol 132:555–564
Song JY, Kitamura S, Oh MJ, Kang HS, Lee JH, Tanaka SJ, Jung SJ (2009) Pathogenicity of Miamiensis avidus (syn. Philasterides dicentrarchi), Pseudocohnilembus persalinus, Pseudocohnilembus hargisi and Uronema marinum (Ciliophora, Scuticociliatida). Dis Aquat Org 83:33–143
Takagishi N, Yoshinaga T, Ogawa K (2009) Effect of hyposalinity on the infection and pathogenicity of Miamiensis avidus causing scuticociliatosis in olive flounder Paralichthys olivaceus. Dis Aquat Org 86:175–179
Won KM et al (2010) Pathological characteristics of olive flounder Paralichthys olivaceus experimentally infected with Streptococcus parauberis. Fish Sci 76:991–998
Acknowledgements
This research was a part of a project titled ‘Omics based on fishery disease control technology development and industrialization (20150242),’ funded by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, Korea.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
Hyunsu Kim declares that he has no conflict of interest. Kyung-Wan Baek declares that he has no conflict of interest. Ahran Kim declares that he has no conflict of interest. Nguyen Thanh Luan declares that he has no conflict of interest. Yunjin Lim declares that he has no conflict of interest. Heyong Jin Roh declares that he has no conflict of interest. Nameun Kim declares that he has no conflict of interest. Do-Hyung Kim declares that he has no conflict of interest. Yung Hyun Choi declares that he has no conflict of interest. Suhkmann Kim declares that he has no conflict of interest. Heui-Soo Kim declares that he has no conflict of interest. Mee Sun Ock declares that he has no conflict of interest. Hee-Jae Cha declares that he has no conflict of interest.
Ethical approval
All experiments were carried out in accordance with the guidelines and regulation approved by Ethical Committee of Pukyong National University.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
13258_2019_792_MOESM1_ESM.pptx
Figure S1. Melting curves from real-time PCR for various M. avidus-infected organs of olive flounder, including spleen, liver, head-kidney, body-kidney, muscle, esophagus, stomach, intestine, gill, and brain 25 days post-infection. Figure S2. For quantification of DNA copy number, a standard curve was generated for each of the 28s genes. Standards containing 100 ng/μl (41,700,000 copies per μl), 10 ng/μl (4,170,000 copies per μl), 1 ng/μl (417,000 copies per μl), 0.1 ng/μl (41,700 copies per μl), 0.01 ng/μl (4,170 copies per μl), 1 pg/μl (417 copies per μl), 0.1 pg/μl (41.7 copies per μl), and 0.01 pg/μl (4.17 copies per μl) were used to generate the calibration curve. (A) Results of real-time PCR for the standards monitored in serial dilution. (B) The standard curve for the real-time PCR assay. The standard curve generated from the mean of Ct values plotted against log10 of eightfold serial dilutions of M. avidus genomic DNA. The calibration curve showed a good linear correlation (r2 = 0.9991). (PPTX 627 KB)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kim, H., Baek, KW., Kim, A. et al. Genome based quantification of Miamiensis avidus in multiple organs of infected olive flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus) by real-time PCR. Genes Genom 41, 567–572 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13258-019-00792-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13258-019-00792-z