The Rise and Fall of Antibiotics in Aquaculture

Commensal bacteria inhabit mucosal and epidermal surfaces in mice and humans, and have effects on metabolic and immune pathways in their hosts. Recent studies indicate that the commensal microbiota can be manipulated to prevent and even to cure infections that are caused by pathogenic bacteria, particularly pathogens that are broadly resistant to antibiotics, such as vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium, Gram-negative Enterobacteriaceae and Clostridium difficile. In this Review, we discuss how immune- mediated colonization resistance against antibiotic-resistant intestinal pathogens is influenced by the composition of the commensal microbiota. We also review recent advances characterizing the ability of different commensal bacterial families, genera and species to restore colonization resistance to intestinal pathogens in antibiotic-treated hosts.

Oral tolerance is the state of local and systemic immune unresponsiveness that is induced by oral administration of innocuous antigen such as food proteins. An analogous but more local process also regulates responses to commensal bacteria in the large intestine and, together, mucosally induced tolerance appears to prevent intestinal disorders such as food allergy, celiac disease, and inflammatory bowel diseases. Here we discuss the anatomical basis of antigen uptake and recognition in oral tolerance and highlight possible mechanisms underlying the immunosuppression. We propose a model of stepwise induction of oral tolerance in which specialized populations of mucosal dendritic cells and the unique microenvironment of draining mesenteric lymph nodes combine to generate regulatory T cells that undergo subsequent expansion in the small intestinal lamina propria. The local and systemic effects of these regulatory T cells prevent potentially dangerous hypersensitivity reactions to harmless antigens derived from the intestine and hence are crucial players in immune homeostasis.

Chloramphenicol (Cm) and its fluorinated derivative florfenicol (Ff) represent highly potent inhibitors of bacterial protein biosynthesis. As a consequence of the use of Cm in human and veterinary medicine, bacterial pathogens of various species and genera have developed and/or acquired Cm resistance. Ff is solely used in veterinary medicine and has been introduced into clinical use in the mid-1990s. Of the Cm resistance genes known to date, only a small number also mediates resistance to Ff. In this review, we present an overview of the different mechanisms responsible for resistance to Cm and Ff with particular focus on the two different types of chloramphenicol acetyltransferases (CATs), specific exporters and multidrug transporters. Phylogenetic trees of the different CAT proteins and exporter proteins were constructed on the basis of a multisequence alignment. Moreover, information is provided on the mobile genetic elements carrying Cm or Cm/Ff resistance genes to provide a basis for the understanding of the distribution and the spread of Cm resistance--even in the absence of a selective pressure imposed by the use of Cm or Ff.