| Bacterial kidney disease (BKD) has long been a hurdle in the successful culture of endangered salmonids raised in captivity, particularly Pacific salmon. |
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| Bacterial Kidney Disease a Threat to Aquaculture |
| Over half of the fish consumed by humans is produced by fish farms, and aquaculture production is on the rise along with the public’s increasing demand for safe, healthy seafood. |
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| BKD is a major cause of fish mortality in public hatcheries, and a significant concern to resource managers given the disease transmission from hatchery to wild fish populations. While scientists have long been aware of the threats that BKD poses to aquaculture, much about the pathogen causing the disease remains poorly understood. |
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| NWFSC scientists and their collaborators recently published the full genome sequence for the bacterium that causes BKD in salmon—a scientific milestone that will provide researchers worldwide with the best available information and potentially incite new discoveries for a cure. |
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| Advanced Tools Reveal Bacterium Genome Sequence |
| The bacterium Renibacterium salmoninarum is notably difficult to study in the laboratory because of its slow growth rate and lack of genetic tools that are commonly used to study other pathogenic bacteria. Therefore scientists must use other advanced methods, such as sequencing the entire genome of the bacterium, to develop information that will lead to a better understanding of how it causes disease. |
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| By learning the pathogen’s genetic code, scientists can more easily determine what it needs to grow, why and how it can infect salmon, whether it has natural resistance to antibiotics, and identify targets for other therapeutics that do not involve classic antibiotics. |
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| Carrying out a project like this requires a true multi–disciplinary collaborative effort. The role of NOAA/NWFSC scientists drew on expertise in microbiology, molecular biology, genomics, and bioinformatics—the latter an area of computational biology that is required to decipher the meaning of the genetic code. |
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| Paving the Way for Better Vaccines |
| There is no cure for BKD and currently available vaccines are not that effective in preventing or controlling outbreaks. |
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| "The significance of making the full genome available is that it represents a major step toward discovering new therapeutics and better vaccines to treat this serious disease in salmon" said microbiologist Dr. Mark Strom, Program Manager of the Microbiology Program and the paper's senior, corresponding author. |
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| Collaborators on the project include researchers with the US Department of Agriculture, Oregon State University, University of Washington’s Genome Center, and Integrated Genomics. The project also provided valuable training opportunities in bioinformatics to undergraduate students from the University of Washington and Oregon State University. |
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| The project also provided valuable training opportunities in bioinformatics to undergraduate students from the University of Washington and Oregon State University. |
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| An abstract of the paper about the Renibacterium genome sequencing project can be found at http://jb.asm.org/cgi/content/abstract/190/21/6970 |
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| The project web site can be found at: http://www.nwfsc.noaa.gov/rs-genome |
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