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Oral Administration of Antimicrobial Peptide NZ2114 Through the Microalgal Bait Tetraselmis subcordiformis (Wille) Butcher for Improving the Immunity and Gut Health in Turbot (Scophthalmus maximus L.)

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Abstract

Antibiotics are widely used in aquaculture to treat the bacterial diseases. However, the improper use of antibiotics could lead to environmental pollution and development of resistance. As a safe and eco-friendly alternative, antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are commonly explored as therapeutic agents. In this study, a mutant strain of Tetraselmis subcordiformis containing AMP NZ2114 was developed and used as an oral drug delivery system to reduce the use of antibiotics in turbot (Scophthalmus maximus) aquaculture. The gut, kidney, and liver immune-related genes and their effects on gut digestion and bacterial communities in turbot fed with NZ2114 were evaluated in an 11-day feeding experiment. The results showed that compared with the group fed with wild-type T. subcordiformis, the group fed with T. subcordiformis transformants containing NZ2114 was revealed with decreased levels of both pro-inflammatory factors (TNF-α and IL-1β), inhibitory effect on Staphylococcus aureus, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, and Vibrio splendidus demonstrated by the in vitro simulation experiments, and increased richness and diversity of the gut microbiota of turbot. In conclusion, our study provided a novel, beneficial, and low-cost method for controlling bacteria in turbot culture through the oral drug delivery systems.

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Data Availability

The datasets presented in this study can be found in online repositories (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/; with the accession PRJNA1015641).

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Prof. Zhangli Hu at Shenzhen University for technical assistance of NZ2114.

Funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42176140, 31972815, 42307179, and 42176124), the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (ZR2023ZD30, ZR2019ZD17, ZR2021MC051, and ZR2021QD137), the Scientific research fund of Binzhou Medical University (BY2021KYQD18, BY2021KYQD25, BY2021KYQD28, and BY2022KYQD01), and the Yantai Economic-Technological Development Area Innovation Pilot Project (2021RC007).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Life Sciences and Medicine, Shandong University of Technology, Zibo, 255000, China

    Ting Yao & Bingkui Zhu

  2. School of Pharmacy, Binzhou Medical University, Yantai, 264003, Shandong, China

    Ting Yao, Hao Zhang, Chunxiao Meng, Zhengquan Gao & Yulin Cui

  3. School of Science and Technology, Georgia Gwinnett College, 1000 University Center Lane, Lawrenceville, GA, 30043, USA

    Fengjie Sun

  4. College of Life Sciences, Yantai University, Yantai, 264000, Shandong, China

    Subing Han

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  1. Ting Yao
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Contributions

Ting Yao: software, validation, formal analysis, data curation, and writing—original draft; Fengjie Sun: data curation and writing—review and editing; Zhengquan Gao: project administration, funding acquisition, and supervision; Bingkui Zhu: formal analysis and data curation; Subing Han: investigation and methodology; Hao Zhang: resources, formal analysis, and funding acquisition; Yuyang Ma: methodology and supervision; Yuyong Wu: validation and supervision; Chunxiao Meng: funding acquisition and supervision; Yulin Cui: funding acquisition, conceptualization, resources, methodology, writing—review and editing, and supervision.

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Correspondence to Zhengquan Gao or Yulin Cui.

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Yao, T., Sun, F., Zhu, B. et al. Oral Administration of Antimicrobial Peptide NZ2114 Through the Microalgal Bait Tetraselmis subcordiformis (Wille) Butcher for Improving the Immunity and Gut Health in Turbot (Scophthalmus maximus L.). Mar Biotechnol 26, 230–242 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10126-024-10289-w

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