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Spoilage of refrigerated Litopenaeus vannamei: eavesdropping on Acinetobacter acyl-homoserine lactones promotes the spoilage potential of Shewanella baltica

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Abstract

Shewanella baltica and Acinetobacter are among the predominant spoilage bacteria in refrigerated shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei). S. baltica are incapable of producing acyl-homoserine lactone (AHL) quorum sensing signals, but can respond to environmental AHLs. In this paper, Acinetobacter was found to produce three AHLs, i.e. N-butanoyl-l-homoserine lactone (C4-HSL), N-(3-oxohexanoyl)-l-homoserine lactone (O-C6-HSL) and N-(3-oxooctanoyl)-l-homoserine lactone (O-C8-HSL), according to thin-layer chromatography using the bioreporter Agrobacterium tumefaciens A136. The agar diffusion and β-galactosidase assays revealed that S. baltica could eavesdrop on these three AHLs from Acinetobacter. Eavesdropping on Acinetobacter AHLs especially C4-HSL was found to boost the growth of S. baltica particularly under nutrient limiting conditions (up to 40-fold increase) in the co-culture experiments. The azocasein assay revealed that S. baltica produced fourfold more extracellular proteases in response to Acinetobacter AHLs. As demonstrated by the biofilm crystal violet staining assay and confocal laser scanning microscopy, eavesdropping also decreased the biofilm-forming capacity of Acinetobacter. By inoculation of S. baltica and Acinetobacter onto surface-sterilized shrimp, eavesdropping was found to endow a growth advantage to S. baltica in vivo, resulting in a 0.5 day shortened shelf life of shrimp according to total volatile basic nitrogen levels and sensory analysis. Overall, the AHL-dependent eavesdropping increased the spoilage potential of S. baltica, providing a fresh perspective on the spoilage process of refrigerated L. vannamei, and this may inspire the development of novel preservation techniques in the future to further reduce post-harvest loss of shrimp.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 31671919), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant No. 2016M592252), and the Qingdao Postdoctoral Applied Research Project (Grant No. 2015239).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Food Science and Engineering, Ocean University of China, 5 Yushan Road, Qingdao, 266003, Shandong Province, China

    Suqin Zhu, Haohao Wu, Caili Zhang, Jinxin Jie, Zunying Liu & Mingyong Zeng

  2. School of Medicine and Pharmacy, Ocean University of China, 5 Yushan Road, Qingdao, 266003, Shandong Province, China

    Changyun Wang

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  1. Suqin Zhu
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  2. Haohao Wu
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  3. Caili Zhang
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Correspondence to Mingyong Zeng.

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Zhu, S., Wu, H., Zhang, C. et al. Spoilage of refrigerated Litopenaeus vannamei: eavesdropping on Acinetobacter acyl-homoserine lactones promotes the spoilage potential of Shewanella baltica. J Food Sci Technol 55, 1903–1912 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13197-018-3108-z

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