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Fish Mucosal Physiology and Immunology 2.0

A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Immunology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2022) | Viewed by 11250

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Nofima, Norwegian Institute of Food, Fisheries and Aquaculture Research, 1430 Ås, Norway
Interests: fish mucosal immunology; fish health and welfare; sustainable aquaculture; peripheral clocks; interplay between immunity and circadian rhythm; mucosal health; oxidative stress
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Guest Editor
Nofima, Muninbakken 9-13, Breivika, Tromsø, Norway
Interests: fish Health; aquaculture; cell biology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues, 

Fish have developed mechanisms to ensure their survival and adaptation in aquatic environments, where a multitude of challenges present a constant threat. Because of their intimate contact with water, fish face more significant pressure in coping with challenges in the immediate environment, compared to terrestrial animals. Mucosal surfaces (i.e., skin, gill, gut, and nasal) are at the forefront in combatting these threats. Hence, they are known to constitute the first line of defense. Several players (e.g., microbes, cells, and molecules) at the mucosa are tightly coordinated to ensure homeostasis, and orchestrated actions are carried out against imminent dangers. In addition to their role in defense, mucosal organs simultaneously perform several other important physiological functions, including respiration, chemoreception, nutrient absorption, osmoregulation, and waste excretion, to name a few.

This Special Issue aims to gather novel research and emerging frontiers in the molecular and cellular basis of fish mucosal physiology and immunology, including but not limited to issues relating to immune mechanisms at the mucosa, molecular players, cellular organization and trafficking, biophysical properties of mucus, molecular markers, evolution and plasticity, and regulation by different stimuli. Fundamental and applied research is welcome. Review papers are also encouraged provided that the chosen topic is discussed in the broader context and knowledge gaps and future perspectives have been identified.


Dr. Elisabeth Ytteborg
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • fish immunology
  • mucosal barriers
  • mucosal health
  • mucus
  • skin
  • gills
  • gut
  • nasal immunity

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 2713 KiB  
Article
Alterations of the Mucosal Immune Response and Microbial Community of the Skin upon Viral Infection in Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)
by Mengting Zhan, Zhenyu Huang, Gaofeng Cheng, Yongyao Yu, Jianguo Su and Zhen Xu
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2022, 23(22), 14037; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms232214037 - 14 Nov 2022
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 1873
Abstract
The skin is the largest organ on the surface of vertebrates, which not only acts as the first line of defense against pathogens but also harbors diverse symbiotic microorganisms. The complex interaction between skin immunity, pathogens, and commensal bacteria has been extensively studied [...] Read more.
The skin is the largest organ on the surface of vertebrates, which not only acts as the first line of defense against pathogens but also harbors diverse symbiotic microorganisms. The complex interaction between skin immunity, pathogens, and commensal bacteria has been extensively studied in mammals. However, little is known regarding the effects of viral infection on the skin immune response and microbial composition in teleost fish. In this study, we exposed rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) to infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHNV) by immersion infection. Through pathogen load detection and pathological evaluation, we confirmed that IHNV successfully invaded the rainbow trout, causing severe damage to the epidermis of the skin. qPCR analyses revealed that IHNV invasion significantly upregulated antiviral genes and elicited strong innate immune responses. Transcriptome analyses indicated that IHNV challenge induced strong antiviral responses mediated by pattern recognition receptor (PRR) signaling pathways in the early stage of the infection (4 days post-infection (dpi)), and an extremely strong antibacterial immune response occurred at 14 dpi. Our 16S rRNA sequencing results indicated that the skin microbial community of IHNV-infected fish was significantly richer and more diverse. Particularly, the infected fish exhibited a decrease in Proteobacteria accompanied by an increase in Actinobacteria. Furthermore, IHNV invasion favored the colonization of opportunistic pathogens such as Rhodococcus and Vibrio on the skin, especially in the later stage of infection, leading to dysbiosis. Our findings suggest that IHNV invasion is associated with skin microbiota dysbiosis and could thus lead to secondary bacterial infection. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fish Mucosal Physiology and Immunology 2.0)
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16 pages, 2523 KiB  
Article
Transcriptomic Analysis in Marine Medaka Gill Reveals That the Hypo-Osmotic Stress Could Alter the Immune Response via the IL17 Signaling Pathway
by Rong Li, Jiaqi Liu, Chi Tim Leung, Xiao Lin, Ting Fung Chan, William Ka Fai Tse and Keng Po Lai
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2022, 23(20), 12417; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms232012417 - 17 Oct 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2373
Abstract
Fish gills are the major osmoregulatory tissue that contact the external water environment and have developed an effective osmoregulatory mechanism to maintain cellular function. Marine medaka (Oryzias melastigma) has the ability to live in both seawater and fresh water environments. The [...] Read more.
Fish gills are the major osmoregulatory tissue that contact the external water environment and have developed an effective osmoregulatory mechanism to maintain cellular function. Marine medaka (Oryzias melastigma) has the ability to live in both seawater and fresh water environments. The present study performed a seawater (SW) to 50% seawater (SFW) transfer, and the gill samples were used for comparative transcriptomic analysis to study the alteration of hypo-osmotic stress on immune responsive genes in this model organism. The result identified 518 differentiated expressed genes (DEGs) after the SW to SFW transfer. Various pathways such as p53 signaling, forkhead box O signaling, and the cell cycle were enriched. Moreover, the immune system was highlighted as one of the top altered biological processes in the enrichment analysis. Various cytokines, chemokines, and inflammatory genes that participate in the IL-17 signaling pathway were suppressed after the SW to SFW transfer. On the other hand, some immunoglobulin-related genes were up-regulated. The results were further validated by real-time qPCR. Taken together, our study provides additional gill transcriptome information in marine medaka; it also supports the notion that osmotic stress could influence the immune responses in fish gills. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fish Mucosal Physiology and Immunology 2.0)
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10 pages, 2133 KiB  
Article
Molecular Characterization of MHC Class I Alpha 1 and 2 Domains in Asian Seabass (Lates calcarifer)
by Zhixuan Loh, Xuelu Huan, Sunita Awate, Markus Schrittwieser, Laurent Renia and Ee Chee Ren
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2022, 23(18), 10688; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms231810688 - 14 Sep 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2633
Abstract
The Asian seabass is of importance both as a farmed and wild animal. With the emergence of infectious diseases, there is a need to understand and characterize the immune system. In humans, the highly polymorphic MHC class I (MHC-I) molecules play an important [...] Read more.
The Asian seabass is of importance both as a farmed and wild animal. With the emergence of infectious diseases, there is a need to understand and characterize the immune system. In humans, the highly polymorphic MHC class I (MHC-I) molecules play an important role in antigen presentation for the adaptive immune system. In the present study, we characterized a single MHC-I gene in Asian seabass (Lates calcarifer) by amplifying and sequencing the MHC-I alpha 1 and alpha 2 domains, followed by multi-sequence alignment analyses. The results indicated that the Asian seabass MHC-I α1 and α2 domain sequences showed an overall similarity within Asian seabass and retained the majority of the conserved binding residues of human leukocyte antigen-A2 (HLA-A2). Phylogenetic tree analysis revealed that the sequences belonged to the U lineage. Mapping the conserved binding residue positions on human HLA-A2 and grass carp crystal structure showed a high degree of similarity. In conclusion, the availability of MHC-I α1 and α2 sequences enhances the quality of MHC class I genetic information in Asian seabass, providing new tools to analyze fish immune responses to pathogen infections, and will be applicable in the study of the phylogeny and the evolution of antigen-specific receptors. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fish Mucosal Physiology and Immunology 2.0)
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17 pages, 2647 KiB  
Article
Effects of Yeast Species and Processing on Intestinal Health and Transcriptomic Profiles of Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar) Fed Soybean Meal-Based Diets in Seawater
by Jeleel O. Agboola, Dominic D. Mensah, Jon Ø. Hansen, David Lapeña, Liv T. Mydland, Magnus Ø. Arntzen, Svein J. Horn, Ove Øyås, Charles McL. Press and Margareth Øverland
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2022, 23(3), 1675; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms23031675 - 31 Jan 2022
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3507
Abstract
The objective of the current study was to examine the effects of yeasts on intestinal health and transcriptomic profiles from the distal intestine and spleen tissue of Atlantic salmon fed SBM-based diets in seawater. Cyberlindnera jadinii (CJ) and Wickerhamomyces anomalus (WA) yeasts were [...] Read more.
The objective of the current study was to examine the effects of yeasts on intestinal health and transcriptomic profiles from the distal intestine and spleen tissue of Atlantic salmon fed SBM-based diets in seawater. Cyberlindnera jadinii (CJ) and Wickerhamomyces anomalus (WA) yeasts were heat-inactivated with spray-drying (ICJ and IWA) or autolyzed at 50 °C for 16 h (ACJ and AWA), followed by spray-drying. Six diets were formulated, one based on fishmeal (FM), a challenging diet with 30% soybean meal (SBM) and four other diets containing 30% SBM and 10% of each of the four yeast fractions (i.e., ICJ, ACJ, IWA and AWA). The inclusion of CJ yeasts reduced the loss of enterocyte supranuclear vacuolization and reduced the population of CD8α labeled cells present in the lamina propria of fish fed the SBM diet. The CJ yeasts controlled the inflammatory responses of fish fed SBM through up-regulation of pathways related to wound healing and taurine metabolism. The WA yeasts dampened the inflammatory profile of fish fed SBM through down-regulation of pathways related to toll-like receptor signaling, C-lectin receptor, cytokine receptor and signal transduction. This study suggests that the yeast species, Cyberlindnera jadinii and Wickerhamomyces anomalus are novel high-quality protein sources with health-beneficial effects in terms of reducing inflammation associated with feeding plant-based diets to Atlantic salmon. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fish Mucosal Physiology and Immunology 2.0)
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