Role ofCristispira sp. and other bacteria in the chitinase and chitobiase activities of the crystalline style ofCrassostrea virginica (Gmelin)

Abstract

Activity was found for chitinase and chitobiase in the crystalline styles of American oysters (Crassostrea virginica Gmelin) collected from the Chesapeake Bay (Maryland, USA). The oysters were maintained in tanks on natural food from a constant flow of unfiltered estuarine water. Chitinase and chitobiase specific activities were compared with total, viable, and chitinoclastic bacterial counts andCristispira counts. Regression analyses revealed that one correlation, chitobiase vsCristispira, was significant (P < 0.05). Several oysters were fed chitin in the presence or absence of chloramphenicol. Although no chitinoclasts were present in the antibiotic-treated oysters, the treatment means did not differ significantly (P > 0.05) for either chitinase or chitobiase activity. In several cases with both chitin-fed and naturally fed oysters, enzyme activity was found when noCristispira were present. The results of the investigations suggest that the oyster produces chitinase and chitobiase endogenously.

The presence, nature, and role of gut microflora in aquatic invertebrates: A synthesis

“…The results are variable, with a few authors reporting a significant contribution by bacterial cellulases [54,122,136,147], and others reporting endogenous cellulase activity and digestion of carbohydrates by the invertebrate alone [138,142,146,155,171,180]. Evidence for the role of gut microbes in the nutrition of aquatic invertebrates was provided by the demonstration that the ability of the mysid, Mysis stenolopis, to assimilate cellulose was lost when the animal was treated with antibiotics.…”

“…Most of the research concerning the gut microflora of Mollusca has been concentrated on the presence of gut bacteria in Bivalvia [20,23,31,51,106,107,123,138,155,164,165,166,167,181,193,168]. Of these, a substantial number of studies have been directed to the gut symbionts of teredine shipworms [40,54,55,83,84,98,108,115,136,160,161,173,211].…”

“…In Crustacea, microflora have been reported in the oral region (mouth) [56,103,104], stomach [56,153], intestine [153,198,206], midgut [8,62,93,105,157], hindgut [8,62,93,105,137,207], and digestive gland [93,147]. In bivalve molluscs, bacteria have been reported in the style [106,107,123,133,138,155,181,193,195], the style pouch [23], the gland of Deshayes [108,160,161,211], the esophagus [155], the stomach [23,106,123,155,166,173,205], the intestine [23,113,114,166,173,194], the ...…”

“…Two methods for enumeration of gut bacteria have been widely used: plate (viable) counts [12,60,63,100,119,138,153,158,201] and direct enumeration by epifluorescent microscopy [60,79,119,138]. In general, the counts obtained by the latter method exceed those by the former by more than an order of magnitude, although estimates for different species have varied greatly (between 102 and 10 9 cells per gram dry weight) for both methods.…”

Proteins in the Crystalline Styles of the Marine MusselsPerna canaliculusGmelin andMytilus galloprovincialisLamarck

“…(e.g., chitinase) activities to them have proved unsuccessful (Mayasichi & Smucker 1987). In the current study, Cristispira spp.…”