European eel immune response against Vibrio vulnificus challenge

Vibriosis caused by Vibrio vulnificus on eels represents an important threat for this specie under culture conditions. Development of new transcriptomic tools is essential to increase the knowledge of eel biology, that nowadays is scarcer. Therefore, using previous results obtained by 454 sequencing of the eel immune-enriched transcriptome, an eel-specific custom microarray have been designed. Gills transcriptomic pattern were analyzed as a principal portal of entry for pathogens in fish after 1h of bath infection with Vibrio vulnificus to describe gill immune response. Moreover, two different strains were used, vibro vulnificus wild type (R99) and rtx double mutant (CT285), to asses the virulence of these pathogen caused by MARTX. Adult european eels were bath infected with two Vibrio vulnificus strains, the wild type and double Rtx mutant (CT285). After 0, 3, 12h post-infection eel gills were sampled. Three individuals per experimental point were sampled, including a Control group and a Handling control group. Obtaining a total of 24 samples. The transcriptomic profile was described for each individual sample.