Interaction of Apidaecin Ib with Phospholipid Bilayers and its Edwardsiella Species-specific Antimicrobial Activity

Apidaecin Ib had strong antimicrobial activity against several tested Gram-negative bacteria including Escherichia coli, Enterobacter cloacae, and Shigella flexneri (MECs; $0.3-1.5{\mu}g/mL$), but showed no activity against all the tested Gram-positive bacteria including Bacillus subtilis, Micrococcus luteus, Staphylococcus aureus and one yeast, Candida albicans (MECs; > $125{\mu}g/mL$). Interestingly, this peptide showed potent antibacterial activity only against Edwardsiella species (MECs; $0.6-3.6{\mu}g/mL$) among the tested fish pathogenic bacteria through a bacteriostatic process and showed no significant hemolytic activity. Apidaecin Ib took an unordered structure in all environments and also had very weak membrane perturbation activity even at $25{\mu}M$. Anti-Edwardsiella activity of apidaecin Ib is stronger than those of other antimicrobial polypeptides or antibiotics, but its activity is salt-sensitive. These results suggest that apidaecin Ib has Edwardsiella speciesspecific antibacterial activity and could be applied as new preventive or control additives for Edwardsiella species infection in freshwater fish aquaculture.