Vaccination of European sea bass Dicentrarchus labrax with avirulent Mycobacterium marinum (iipA::kan mutant).

Mycobacteriosis is a chronic progressive disease affecting teleost fishes all over the world. No vaccine is commercially available against its main etiological agent, Mycobacterium marinum. The mycobacterial gene responsible for invasion and intracellular persistence, iipA, is known to modulate M.

Co-existence of Myxobolus spp. (Myxozoa) in gray mullet (Mugil cephalus) juveniles from the Mediterranean Sea.

Gray mullet (Mugilidae) occur in all seas and are farmed widely around the world, and thus, the risk of their parasites spreading through transport of aquaculture seed is a serious concern. Among others, gray mullets typically host a diversity of myxosporeans, a group in which spore morphometrics of genera has been consistently shown to be inadequate for determination of species. In this study, we investigated Myxobolus Bütschli 1882 (Myxosporea) species found in two fingerling stocks of Mugil cephalus caught in the wild off the coasts of the eastern (Israel) and western (Spain) Mediterranean.

Humoral and Cellular Immune Response of European Seabass Dicentrarchus labrax Vaccinated with Heat-Killed Mycobacterium marinum (iipA::kan Mutant).

No vaccine is yet commercially available against Mycobacterium marinum, the etiological agent of fish mycobacteriosis (also known as "fish tuberculosis"). The mycobacterial gene responsible for invasion and intracellular persistence, iipA, is known to moderate M. marinum pathology in Zebrafish Danio rerio.

Edwardsiella piscicida-like pathogen in cultured grouper.

An Edwardsiella sp. was isolated from the kidney of diseased groupers (Epinephelus aeneus and E. marginatus) cultured in Eilat (Israel, Red Sea).

Complete Genome Sequence of an Edwardsiella piscicida-Like Species Isolated from Diseased Grouper in Israel.

The Edwardsiella piscicida-like sp. is a Gram-negative facultative anaerobe that causes disease in some fish species. We report here the complete genome sequence of a virulent isolate from a diseased white grouper (Epinephelus aeneus) raised on the Red Sea in Israel, which contains a chromosome of 3,934,167 bp and no plasmids.

A transgenic zebrafish model for monitoring xbp1 splicing and endoplasmic reticulum stress in vivo.

Accumulation of misfolded or unfolded proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) triggers ER stress that initiates unfolded protein response (UPR). XBP1 is a transcription factor that mediates one of the key signaling pathways of UPR to cope with ER stress through regulating gene expression. Activation of XBP1 involves an unconventional mRNA splicing catalyzed by IRE1 endonuclease that removes an internal 26 nucleotides from xbp1 mRNA transcripts in the cytoplasm.

Selective and universal primers for trematode barcoding in freshwater snails.

Trematodes are significant pathogens of high medical, veterinary, and environmental importance. They are hard to isolate from their intermediate hosts, and their early life stages are difficult to identify morphologically. Therefore, primers were developed for trematodes to create a species barcoding system and allow selective PCR amplification in mixed samples.

Kudoa iwatai (Myxosporea: Multivalvulida) in wild and cultured fish in the Red Sea: redescription and molecular phylogeny.

Gilt-head sea bream, Sparus aurata L., the Mediterranean's most important mariculture species, has been cultured for the last 30 yr in Eilat (Israeli Red Sea). Kudoa sp.

Mycobacterium marinum infections in fish and humans in Israel.

Israeli Mycobacterium marinum isolates from humans and fish were compared by direct sequencing of the 16S rRNA and hsp65 genes, restriction mapping, and amplified fragment length polymorphism analysis. Significant molecular differences separated all clinical isolates from the piscine isolates, ruling out the local aquaculture industry as the source of human infections.

Nodavirus infections in Israeli mariculture.

Viral encephalopathy and retinopathy (VER) infections were diagnosed in five fish species: Epinephelus aeneus, Dicentrarchus labrax, Sciaenops ocellatus, Lates calcarifer and Mugil cephalus cultured on both the Red Sea and Mediterranean coasts of Israel during 1998-2002. Spongiform vacuolation of nervous tissue was observed in histological sections of all examined species. With transmission electron microscopy, paracrystalline arrays and pieces of membrane-associated non-enveloped virions measuring approximately 30 nm in diameter were observed in the brain and retina of all species.

Strain variation in Mycobacterium marinum fish isolates.

A molecular characterization of two Mycobacterium marinum genes, 16S rRNA and hsp65, was carried out with a total of 21 isolates from various species of fish from both marine and freshwater environments of Israel, Europe, and the Far East. The nucleotide sequences of both genes revealed that all M. marinum isolates from fish in Israel belonged to two different strains, one infecting marine (cultured and wild) fish and the other infecting freshwater (cultured) fish.

Photobacterium damselae ssp. piscicida: detection by direct amplification of 16S rRNA gene sequences and genotypic variation as determined by amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP).

A PCR protocol for the rapid diagnosis of fish 'pasteurellosis' based on 16S rRNA gene sequences was developed. The procedure combines low annealing temperature that detects low titers of Photobacterium damselae but also related species, and high annealing temperature for the specific identification of P. damselae directly from infected fish.

Mycobacteriosis in wild rabbitfish Siganus rivulatus associated with cage farming in the Gulf of Eilat, Red Sea.

Infection patterns of Mycobacterium marinum were studied over a period of 3 yr in wild rabbitfish Siganus nivulatus populations associated with commercial mariculture cages and inhabiting various sites along the Israeli Red Sea coastline. Mycobacteriosis was first recorded from the Red Sea in 1990 in farmed sea bass Dicentrarchus labrax and is absent from records of studies on parasites and diseases of wild rabbitfish carried out in the 1970s and 1980s. A sharp increase in the prevalence of the disease in cultured and wild fish in the region has occurred since.

Habitat selection and home range in the Blanford's fox, Vulpes cana: compatibility with the resource dispersion hypothesis.

This paper presents analyses of habitat-use and home range size in the Blanford's fox. We predicted, from the resource dispersion hypothesis (RDH), that home ranges would encompass similar areas of combined fruitful habitats, but widely different areas of useless habitats, and thus that home ranges would be larger where such fruitful patches are fragmented and widely dispersed. Home range estimates of 0.

Relationship between the Unicellular Red Alga Porphyridium sp. and Its Predator, the Dinoflagellate Gymnodinium sp.

Contamination of algae cultivated outdoors by various microorganisms, such as bacteria, fungi, algae, and protozoa, can affect growth and product quality, sometimes causing fast collapse of the cultures. The main contaminant of Porphyridium cultures grown outdoors in Israel is a Gymnodinium sp., a dinoflagellate that feeds on the alga.