Adhesion of Tenacibaculum sp. to Short-spined Sea Urchin Strongylocentroutus intermedius and Control of Spotting Disease by Inhibiting Adhesion Using Carbohydrate

Abstract

We examined the adhesion of Tenacibaculum sp., the causative bacterium of spotting disease of short-spined sea urchin Stronglycentroutus intermedius, to the host. The number of adhesive cells of Tenacibaculum sp. strain F-2 isolated from diseased sea urchin was about 30 times more than those of two stains of non-pathogenic marine Cytophaga sp. isolated from healthy sea urchins. The adhesion of Tenacibaculum sp. F-2 to the sea urchins was inhibited by about 90% when the sea urchins were pre-treated with 0.1% D-galactose or D-xylose for 1 h. With this treatment, all sea urchins remained asymptomatic and were still alive at 7^th day after being immersed with 10⁶ or 10⁷ CFU/mL Tenacibaculum sp. F-2 for 1 h at 23°C, while mortality of control reached 100%. These results indicate that carbohydrate treatment of the sea urchin is useful to control the disease.