Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Selcuk 9th International Conference on Applied Sciences, Konya, Türkiye, 15 - 17 Aralık 2023
Lactococcus species are generally considered non-pathogenic and are mostly associated with
their usage in the production of fermented foods. However, several Lactococcus species with
known and emerging clinical consequences in fish have been identified including L. garvieae,
L. plantarum, L. piscium, L. raffinolactis, L. formosensis, and L. petauri. L. formosensis, and L.
petauri share a noteworthy percentage of their genome with L. garvieae and have also been
recently identified as etiologic agents of lactococcosis in various fish species like trout and
catfish. It is an opportunistically zoonotic, Gram-positive bacteria responsible for costly
outbreaks of high mortality in wild and cultured fish populations. Clinical appearance of
infections caused by L. garvieae, L. petauri, or L. formosensis is similar and can include acute
hemorrhagic septicemia, erratic swimming, lethargy, exophthalmia, anorexia, skin
pigmentation changes, and moderate to high mortality in affected systems. In this study, we
evaluated L. formosensis genomes, which are publicly available on NCBI (National Center for
Biotechnology Information) database. For the phylogenetic relationship of genomes, a
phylogenetic tree was built with core genomes, and an ANI (Average Nucleotide Identity) value
was calculated. To identify virulence factors, VFDB (Virulence Factor Database) software was
used. The results showed that adherence, adhesion, anti-phagocytosis, biofilm formation,
enzyme, immune evasion, invasion, iron uptake, nutritional virulence, protease, and surface
protein anchoring related virulence factor genes were identified. Virulence factors can vary
between bacterial strains within the same species, so further detailed studies might be required
to understand the potential virulence factors of L. formosensis.