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Molecular studies of the Saprolegnia-fish interaction: unravelling virulence factors and host responses

Reference	BB/C518457/1
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Pieter van West
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors	Professor Chris Secombes
Institution	University of Aberdeen
Department	School of Medical Sciences
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	280,964
Status	Completed
Type	Research Grant
Start date	01/12/2005
End date	30/11/2008
Duration	36 months

Abstract

Disease is the single largest cause of economic losses in aquaculture and fish farming. Infections caused by fungus-like organisms such as the oomycete Saprolegnia parasitica, and other water moulds, are second only to bacterial diseases in terms of economic importance. Disease ultimately results in death of the fish. Despite the enormous economic importance, virtually nothing is known about the molecular processes that are going on during the pathogenic interaction. For the first time, we will investigate some of the molecular infection and defence processes that take place at the interface between pathogen and fish. We will investigate the role of several candidate virulence genes in the infection process of S. parasitica on Atlantic salmon. We will employ several of our recently developed techniques, including RNA-interference, to generate mutant strains of S. parasitica to investigate gene function. We will also use advanced biochemical and proteomic techniques to identify down stream fish targets of some of the candidate virulence factors. Furthermore, we will investigate the host response upon infection by identifying genes from the fish that are up- or down- regulated in response to Saprolegnia infections. Therefore we will perform detailed expression studies with micro-arrays containing DNA fragments of about 14,000 salmon genes. We aim to identify potential new targets that may be exploited for disease control in the future.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Animal Sciences (AS)
Research Topics	Animal Health, Immunology, Microbiology
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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