Adhesion of Vibrio fluvialis to skin mucus of Epinephelus awoara

Adhesion of Vibrio fluvialis to skin mucus of Epinephelus awoara had been investigated by using [methyl-3H] thymidine as the isotope tracer. The results show that the adhension ability of Vibrio fluvialis incubated in TSB is extremely stronger than that of V. fluvialis incubated on TSA(P0.01). The adhension quantity of V. fluvialis to skin mucus of E. awoara increases with the densities of bacterial suspension,and the bacterial adhension measures up to the saturation kinetics. After the bacteria were treated with rabbit antiserum against O-antigen of V. fluvialis,the number of adhering bacteria reduced by 52%. V. fluvialis at different culture stages showed different adhension ability. At early growth stage,the number of adhering bacteria increased with incubation time and reached peak at 24 h,and then droped sharply with the culture time after 24 h. The results indicate that V. fluvialis adheres to the skin mucus of E. awoara strongly by specific adhesion,and this kind of bacterial adhension is remarkably influenced by culture conditions and nutrition level. These results are helpful for better understanding the characteristics of epidemiology and pathogenesis of V. fluvialis.