Grimwood Rebecca M, Zamora Leonardo N, Darnley Jessica A, Delisle Lizenn, Hutson Kate S, Hills Julie, Geoghegan Jemma L
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Cawthron Institute, Nelson, New Zealand.
J Fish Dis. 2025 Aug 4:e70033. doi: 10.1111/jfd.70033.
Tail fan necrosis (TFN) is a shell disease affecting spiny lobsters' outer integument, with significant implications for the health and commercial viability of red rock lobsters (Jasus edwardsii) in New Zealand. Despite its impact, the potential role of a microbial agent in TFN remains poorly understood. Here, we conducted metatranscriptomic analyses on matching uropod and haemolymph samples from 15 red rock lobsters exhibiting TFN symptoms to characterise the associated microbial communities and search for putative candidates for further investigation. We report the discovery of a novel crustavirus (family: Nyamiviridae), named Red rock lobster crustavirus (RRLCV), consistently present in the uropod tissues of all sampled lobsters with TFN. RRLCV's presence and high abundance in uropod tissues suggest a potential association with TFN, although we found no direct relationship between viral abundance and TFN severity metrics, such as tissue loss. We also identified 30 bacterial genera across uropod samples, including previously associated groups; however, these were detected inconsistently. Our findings raise new questions about the tissue tropism, transmission and potential pathogenicity of RRLCV in red rock lobsters. While TFN appears to be a multifactorial condition, RRLCV represents a promising candidate for further research into its role in the development of this disease.
尾扇坏死（TFN）是一种影响刺龙虾体表的外壳疾病，对新西兰红螯螯虾（Jasus edwardsii）的健康和商业可行性具有重大影响。尽管其有影响，但微生物因子在TFN中的潜在作用仍知之甚少。在此，我们对15只表现出TFN症状的红螯螯虾的相应尾肢和血淋巴样本进行了宏转录组分析，以表征相关的微生物群落，并寻找进一步研究的假定候选对象。我们报告发现了一种新型的双链RNA病毒（家族：尼亚病毒科），命名为红螯螯虾双链RNA病毒（RRLCV），在所有采样的患有TFN的龙虾的尾肢组织中均持续存在。RRLCV在尾肢组织中的存在和高丰度表明其与TFN可能存在关联，尽管我们未发现病毒丰度与TFN严重程度指标（如组织损失）之间存在直接关系。我们还在尾肢样本中鉴定出30个细菌属，包括先前相关的类群；然而，这些检测结果并不一致。我们的研究结果对RRLCV在红螯螯虾中的组织嗜性、传播和潜在致病性提出了新问题。虽然TFN似乎是一种多因素疾病，但RRLCV是进一步研究其在该疾病发展中作用的一个有前景的候选对象。
