Marine Drugs (Nov 2011)

Isolation and Identification of a New Tetrodotoxin-Producing Bacterial Species, Raoultella terrigena, from Hong Kong Marine Puffer Fish Takifugu niphobles

  • Fred Wang-Fat Lee,
  • Peter Hoi-Fu Yu,
  • Vincent Chung-Him Yu,
  • Kin-Chung Ho

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/md9112384
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 11
pp. 2384 – 2396

Abstract

Read online

Puffer fish, Takifugu niphobles, collected from the Hong Kong coastal waters were screened for tetrodotoxin-producing bacteria. A Gram-negative, non-acid-fast, non-sporing and rod shaped bacterial strain (designated as gutB01) was isolated from the intestine of the puffer fish and was shown to produce tetrodotoxin (TTX). Based on the Microbial Identification (MIDI) and 16S-23S rDNA internal transcribed spacer (ITS) phylogenetic analysis, the strain was identified as Raoultella terrigena. The TTX production ability of the strain was confirmed by mouse bioassay, ELISA and mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF). Our results reiterate that the TTX found in puffer fish was likely produced by the associated bacteria and TTX are widely produced amongst a diversity of bacterial species.

Keywords