Meeting Abstract
Most vertebrate animals have complex interactions with their gut and surface microbiota. In marine fishes, mucus samples have been found to have potent antibacterial, antifungal, and anti-proliferative properties. Some of this activity has been attributed to chemical defenses from the host, but recent exploration of fish microbiota has shown that they also produce numerous bioactive secondary metabolites, small organic compounds that are not directly involved in primary metabolism. The resulting mixture of bioactive compounds within the microbiota environment is believed to have an important role in providing for host defense as well as shaping the composition of the microbial community. However, relatively few studies have examined whether the microbiota in marine fishes also produce neuroactive compounds. To address this question, we sampled surface mucus from dozens of marine fishes, isolated 47 unique bacterial strains, cultured these strains, extracted secondary metabolites from the cultures, and then tested extracts for neuroactivity using a zebrafish based behavioral assay and for cytotoxicity using a cell-based assay. We identified numerous microbial strains from several marine fish species that produce compounds with potent pro-nociceptive and cytotoxic properties. Such compounds may alter the behavior of the host organism or potentially have a role in preventing predation.
