It is a practical approach to select candidate probiotic bacterial stains on the basis of their special traits. Production of digestive enzyme was used as a trait to select a candidate probiotic bacterial strain in this study. In order to select a bacterium with the ability to degrade both starch and protein, an ideal bacterial strain STE was isolated from marine shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) intestines by using multiple selective media.The selected isolate STE was identified on the basis of its morphological, physiological,and biochemical characteristics as well as molecular analyses. Results of degradation experiments confirmed the ability of the selected isolate to degrade both starch and casein. The isolate STE was aerobic, Gram-negative, rod-shaped, motile and non-spore-forming, and had catalase and oxidase activities but no glucose fermentation activity. Among the tested carbon/nitrogen sources, only Tween40, alanyl-glycine, aspartyl-glycine, and glycyl-l-glutamic acid were utilized by the isolate STE. Results of homology comparison analyses of the 16S rDNA sequences showed that the isolate STE had a high similarity to several Pseudoalteromonas species and, in the phylogenetic tree, grouped with P. ruthenica with maximum bootstrap support (100%). In conclusion, the isolate STE was characterized as a novel strain belonging to the genus Pseudoalteromonas.This study provides a further example of a probiotic bacterial strain with specific characteristics isolated from the host gastrointestinal tract.
Shrimp farming is an important source of revenue and employment in many developing countries.However,infectious diseases have adversely affected the profitability of shrimp industry.For this reason,disease prevention is a priority and shrimp immunology has become a crucial research area of this field. In this paper,the current importance and problems of shrimp-culture were described and the research advances in shrimp immunological defence mechanisms were summarized. The immunological tools are powerful and useful to evaluate the health state of the shrimp. The immunologies of shrimp mainly consist of cellular immunity and humoral immunity. In regard to cellular parameters, they are composed of haemocyte count (THC), differential haemocyte count (DHC) and reactive oxygen intermediates (ROIs). The immunity cells exert their defence functions through phagocytizing, enveloping, etc,and the changes of THC and DHC are related to health state of shrimp. The ROIs generated during post phagocytic event which maybe an important marker to evaluate the immunological capability and phenoloxidase activity have been considered as a potential marker which is relevant to the health of the shrimp too. Concerning humoral parameters, prophenoloxidase (ProPO) and phenoloxidase, antimicrobial peptides and proteins, hemagglutinin and plasma proteins were described. The determining methods of immunity parameters were discussed. The response of shrimp to pathogens such as bacteria, virus, etc. and environmental factors such as DO, pH, etc, were also reviewed. It is well-known that the immune responses induced by immunizing crustacean or shrimp are mainly the non-specific immune responses. The potential of immunological parameters, including the changes of THC and DHC, the production of ROIs, phenoloxidase (PO) activity, antibacterial activity of plasma, and so on, to appraise the healthy state of shrimp were partly discussed. The future directions for the evaluation of the immunological capability of shrimp were proposed.
