| Title | Antagonism of Bacterial Extracellular Metabolites to Freshwater-Fouling Invertebrate Zebra Mussels, Dreissena polymorpha |
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| Author | Ji-Dong Gu 1 * and Ralph Mitchell |
| Address | Laboratory of Microbial Ecology, Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, 40 Oxford Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, U |
| Bibliography | Journal of Microbiology, 39(2),133-138, 2001, |
| DOI | |
| Key Words | zebra mussels, Dreissena polymorpha, biological control, antagonism, bacterial isolate, metab-olites |
| Abstract | We investigated the antagonism of indigenous bacteria isolated from stressed mussels and their extra-cellular metabolites on the adult zebra mussel, Dreissena polymorpha. Selective bacterial isolates including Aeromonas media, A. salmonicida, A. veronii, and Shewanella putrefaciens, showed strong lethality against adult mussels and 100% mortality was observed within 5 days of incubation. Bacterial metabolites, fractionated and concentrated from stationary-phase culture supernatants of these bacterial isolates, displayed varying degrees of antagonistic effects on zebra mussels. Among the three size fractions examined, <5, 5-10, and >10 kDa, the most lethal fraction seems to be >10 kDa for three of the four isolates tested. Further chemical analyses of these size fractions revealed that the predominant constituents were polysaccharides and proteins. No 2-keto-3-deoxyoctanoic acid (2-KDO), deoxyri-bonucleic acids (DNA) or uronic acid were detectable. Extraction of supernatants of two antagonistic isolates with polar solvent suggested that polar molecules are present in the active fraction. Our data suggest that extracellular metabolites produced by antagonistic bacteria are also involved in disease development in zebra mussels and elucidation of the mechanisms involved may offer a novel strategy for control of biofouling invertebrates. |
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