TY - JOUR T1 - Use of Natural Antimicrobial Peptides and Bacterial Biopolymers for Cultured Pearl Production A1 - Simon-Colin,Christelle A1 - Gueguen,Yannick A1 - Bachere,Evelyne A1 - Kouzayha,Achraf A1 - Saulnier,Denis A1 - Gayet,Nicolas A1 - Guezennec,Jean AD - IFREMER, Ctr Brest, F-29280 Plouzane, France. AD - Univ Montpellier 2, CNRS, UPVD, Ifremer UMR IHPE 5244, F-34095 Montpellier, France. AD - UPF ILM IRD, IFREMER, UMR EIO 241, Labex Corail, Taravao 98719, Fr Polynesia. AD - Lebanese Univ, Sect 3, Dept Biochem, Fac Sci, Tripoli, Lebanon. AD - AiMB, F-29280 Plouzane, France. UR - https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00275/38599/ DO - 10.3390/md13063732 KW - pearl oyster KW - exopolysaccharide KW - tachyplesin KW - antimicrobial N2 - Cultured pearls are the product of grafting and rearing of Pinctada margaritifera pearl oysters in their natural environment. Nucleus rejections and oyster mortality appear to result from bacterial infections or from an inappropriate grafting practice. To reduce the impact of bacterial infections, synthetic antibiotics have been applied during the grafting practice. However, the use of such antibiotics presents a number of problems associated with their incomplete biodegradability, limited efficacy in some cases, and an increased risk of selecting for antimicrobial resistant bacteria. We investigated the application of a marine antimicrobial peptide, tachyplesin, which is present in the Japanese horseshoe crab Tachypleus tridentatus, in combination with two marine bacterial exopolymers as alternative treatment agents. In field studies, the combination treatment resulted in a significant reduction in graft failures vs. untreated controls. The combination of tachyplesin (73 mg/L) with two bacterial exopolysaccharides (0.5% w/w) acting as filming agents, reduces graft-associated bacterial contamination. The survival data were similar to that reported for antibiotic treatments. These data suggest that non-antibiotic treatments of pearl oysters may provide an effective means of improving oyster survival following grafting procedures. Y1 - 2015/06 PB - Mdpi Ag JF - Marine Drugs SN - 1660-3397 VL - 13 IS - 6 SP - 3732 EP - 3744 ID - 38599 ER -