Molecular mechanisms of microbial interaction and effects on host health related to acute hepatopancreatic necrosis disease in shrimp

Microbes play an important role in animal health, especially in aquatic organisms. The omics sciences have improved the understanding of pathogens that cause infectious diseases, not only because it helps to track them and acquire knowledge on their distribution, but it also allows the understanding of how they interact with other microorganisms. Aquatic environments are composed of thousands of bacterial species displaying complex interactions and where selective pressures award those capable of gaining new properties that enhance fitness. This thesis was developed based on the evaluation and implementation of new genomics and metagenomics approaches focused on epidemiological studies in aquatic species, to better understand how a specific aquatic pathogen develops its pathogenesis in situ, as well as the importance of interaction with other microorganisms associated with the host and the factors that control these activities. Furthermore, here I present a series of studies that integrated clinical microbiology, epidemiology, and genomics techniques to study bacterial pathogens that cause AHPND. The specific aims of this thesis were: 1) to investigate the genomic diversity, population structure, virulence potential, and phylogenetic relationships of two closely related Vibrio species, isolated from shrimp cultures that had mortality events caused by a bacterial disease in South America. 2) To investigate the gastric microbiome of shrimp during AHPND infection caused by Vibrio parahaemolyticus and determine probiotic strains that can promote host health, to define whether there are species-specific signatures in the metagenome that can be used to diagnose disease states in shrimp culture. 3) To characterize genetic variation between plasmids and chromosomes, important virulence factors, and phylogenomic relationships of virulent isolates of V. parahaemolyticus strains isolated from South America, along with strains distributed worldwide.

• Autores: Restrepo Cardona, Leda Carolina Amparo
• Tipo de recurso: Doctoral thesis
• Fecha de publicación: 2021
• Institución: Universidad de los Andes
• Repositorio: Séneca: repositorio Uniandes
• Idioma: spa
• OAI Identifier: oai:repositorio.uniandes.edu.co:1992/55085
• Acceso en línea: http://hdl.handle.net/1992/55085
• Palabra clave: Patogenicidad; Vibriosis; Diagnóstico microbiológico; Epidemiología; Biología
• Rights: openAccess
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/