Project description:Amoebic Gill Disease (AGD), caused by the ectoparasite Paramoeba perurans (P. perurans) is characterised by hyperplasia of the gill epithelium and lamellar fusion and has become recognised as one of the most significant health threats in salmon farming . In this study, the gill and serum proteomes of Atlantic salmon inoculated with P. perurans, across multiple timepoints post-challenge, were analysed. The expression of proteins with established roles in innate immunity, across various timepoints, was compared with expression in naïve Atlantic salmon to elucidate the host response to gill colonisation.
Project description:The transcriptome response of 12 amoebic gill disease (AGD) affected Atlantic salmon were compared to 6 AGD naive Atlantic salmon at 19 days post infection. The transcriptome response was examined in the gill, liver and anterior kidney.
Project description:Fish gills are not only the respiratory organ, but also essential for ion-regulation, acid-base control, detoxification, waste excretion and host defense. Multifactorial gill diseases are common in farmed Atlantic salmon, and still poorly understood. Understanding gill pathophysiology is of paramount importance, but the sacrifice of large numbers of experimental animals for this purpose should be avoided. Therefore, in vitro models, such as cell lines, are urgently required to replace fish trials. An Atlantic salmon gill epithelial cell line, ASG-10, was established at the Norwegian Veterinary institute in 2018. This cell line forms a monolayer expressing cytokeratin, e-cadherin and desmosomes, hallmarks of a functional epithelial barrier. To determine the value of ASG-10 for comparative studies of gill functions, the characterization of ASG-10 was taken one step further by performing functional assays and comparing the cell proteome and transcriptome with those of gills from juvenile freshwater Atlantic salmon. The ASG-10 cell line appear to be a homogenous cell line consisting of epithelial cells, which express tight junction proteins. We demonstrated that ASG-10 forms a barrier, both alone and in co-culture with the Atlantic salmon gill fibroblast cell line ASG- 13. ASG-10 cells can phagocytose and express several ATP-binding cassette transport proteins. Additionally, ASG-10 expresses genes involved in biotransformation of xenobiotics and immune responses. Taken together, this study provides an overview of functions that can be studied using ASG-10, which will be an important contribution to in vitro gill epithelial research of Atlantic salmon.
Project description:The salmon gill poxvirus (SGPV) is a large DNA virus that infects gill epithelial cells in Atlantic salmon and is associated with acute high mortality disease outbreaks in aquaculture. The pathological effects of SGPV infection include gill epithelial apoptosis in the acute phase of the disease and hyperplasia of gill epithelial cells in surviving fish, causing damage to the gill respiratory surface. Transcriptome responses to virus were assessed in gills at different stages of disease
Project description:The aim of this experiment was to explore transcriptomic changes in the gills of Altantic salmon (Salmo salar) following a model lab based parr smolt transformation from fresh water (FW) to salt water (SW). The process of smoltification (migration from FW to SW) is stimulated by long day photoperiod, which acts on the tissue-specific levels of active thyroid hormone (triiodothyronine, T3) through the expression of thyroid hormone type 2 deiodinase (dio2), responsible for conversion of inactive thyroxine (T4) to T3. To gain insight into the functional significance of dio2 induction, we performed a SW-challenge experiment in which we inhibited dio2 activity by addition of iopanoic acid (IOP) to the SW. We also assessed the ability of co-treatment with T3 to override IOP effects. Juvenile fish maintained in FW were subjected to a standard smolt photoperiod regime known to stimulate smoltification, after which they were randomly allocated to one of the four treatments: SW, SW+IOP, SW+IOP+T3 and FW as a control. Fish (n = 8-10 per treatment) were exposed to these conditions for 6 h and then sacrificed to obtain gill tissue for microarray analysis, carried out using a custom-designed Agilent oligonucleotide microarray platform Salar_2 (one glass slide with 4 x 44K arrays, Agilent design ID: 025520, array design A-MEXP-2065), developed and validated for Atlantic salmon (for details, see specific protocols) . In total, 36 hybridisations were performed on gills from individual fish, with 8-10 replicate fish per treatment. We identified 1939 genes whose expression was significantly increased or decreased by transfer from FW to SW. For a subset of 259 genes, this SW response was abolished if IOP was added to the SW, but maintained if T3 was also present during IOP treatment. This group of genes constitutes a candidate list, for which SW-inducibility appears to be dependent on locally mediated changes in gill T3 availability. The results of this experiment have been submitted for publication in Current Biology and are currently under review.
Project description:This experiment is intended to provide information about transcriptional changes in the gill of Atlantic salmon during smoltification, in comparison with juvenile salmon not given the appropriate photoperiodic stimuli. Also, transcriptional changes due to osmotic stress (24H salt water challenged) will be recorded. This to better understand the transformation of the gill from a fresh water-type to a salt water-type, and possibly identify novel and important genes that are dependent upon a specific photoperiodic history for their expression. Additionally the data can be used to observe the shift in salt water response as the juvenile salmon goes through smoltification. Experimental workflow: All fish started on 24H light (LL), after one week, half of the fish were moved to short photoperiod (8:16, SP). The rest remained on LL throughout. After eight weeks, half of the fish on short photoperiod were moved back onto 24H light (SPLL). Remaining fish continued under 8:16. After another eight weeks the experiment was ended. Fish were sampled on days 0, 32, 53, 68, 89 and 110. On each sampling occasion fish were sampled directly from fresh water (FW), and from a 24H salt water (SW) stay, transferred the previous day. Weight and length was noted. Gill tissue was the taken and placed in RNAlater. Additionally plasma for measuring hypoosmoregulatory capacity was taken.
Project description:We compared gill transcriptomes of two groups of Atlantic salmon, one designated putatively resistant, and one designated susceptible to amoebic gill disease (AGD).