Immune response and inhibition of bacterial growth by electrotransfer of plasmid DNA containing the antimicrobial peptide, epinecidin-1, into zebrafish muscle.

Bacterial infections represent serious diseases in aquaculture, rapidly leading to fish death by septicemia. We investigated whether the electrotransfer of green fluorescent protein gene fusion epinecidin-1 (CMV-gfp-epi) DNA into zebrafish muscle could regulate the fish immune response and inhibit bacterial growth. Electroporation parameters such as the number of pulses, voltage, and amount of plasmid DNA were analyzed, and results demonstrated the greatest mRNA expression level of gfp-epi relative to beta-actin was obtained with a pulse number of 4, a voltage strength of 100 V/cm, a concentration of DNA of 90 microg/fish, and electroporation for 96 h.