The immune response of a warm water fish orange-spotted grouper (Epinephelus coioides) infected with a typical cold water bacterial pathogen Aeromonas salmonicida is AhR dependent.

The present study reported the first pathogenic Aeromonas salmonicida (SRW-OG1) isolated from the warm water fish orange-spotted grouper (Epinephelus coioides), and investigated the function of Aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR), a ligand-dependent transcriptional factor which has been recently found to be closely associated with immune response in mammals and E. coioides. Our results showed that AhR was activated by an unknown ligand in the spleen, intestine and macrophages. Meanwhile, ahr1a and ahr1b were significantly increased in the spleen, intestine and macrophages, whereas ahr2 was only increased in the intestine, which indicated that the contribution of AhR2 to the immune response may be less than that of AhR1a and AhR1b. Some key genes involved in the macrophage inflammatory response, bacterial recognition, and intestinal immunity were significantly up-regulated in the SRW-OG1 infected E. coioides. Nevertheless, declining macrophage ROS production and down-regulation of related genes were also observed, suggesting that SRW-OG1 utilized its virulence mechanisms to prevent macrophage ROS production. Furthermore, AhR inhibitor 3', 4'-DMF and the silence of ahr1a or ahr1b significantly rescued the increased IL-1β and IL-8 induced by SRW-OG1 infection, which proved that the induction of IL-1β and IL-8 in E. coioides macrophages was mediated by AhR. However, BPI/LBP, ROS production and related genes were not affected by AhR. The survival rate and immune escape rate of SRW-OG1 in the ahr1a/ahr1b knocked-down and 3', 4'-DMF treated macrophages were significantly increased compared with those in wild type macrophages. Taken together, it was preliminarily confirmed that ahr1a and ahr1b played an important role in the immune response against A. salmonicida SRW-OG1.