ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Zoological Medicine
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2025.1574705
This article is part of the Research TopicSurveillance and Control of Wildlife Diseases: Integrating Ecology, Pathology, and Public HealthView all 8 articles
Characterization of Photobacterium damselae subsp. damselae Isolated from a Spotted Seal (Phoca largha) (Pinnipedia: Phocidae) Stranded in Korea
Provisionally accepted
Tae Seon Cha1
Seon Young Park2
Kyunglee Lee3Eun Jeong Park1
Jong Beom Na1Ye Bin Kim1Kee Man Lee1Soojin Lim1Namgyu Uh3
Ji-Youl Jung4Byung Yeop Kim4Bumkeun Kim5
Jee Eun Han5*
Ji Hyung Kim1*- 1Gachon University, Seongnam, Republic of Korea
- 2Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
- 3National Institute of Fisheries Science (NIFS), Busan, Busan, Republic of Korea
- 4Jeju National University, Jeju City, Jeju, Republic of Korea
- 5Kyungpook National University, Daegu, North Gyeongsang, Republic of Korea
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Photobacterium damselae subsp. damselae (PDD) is an emerging marine bacterial pathogen that infects marine animals and humans and causes fatal necrotizing fasciitis and histamine fish poisoning. Despite its clinical and ecological importance, the microbiological and genomic characteristics of PDD remain largely unknown. Herein, we report the first case of systemic infection caused by PDD in a free-ranging spotted seal (Phoca largha) stranded in Korea. Histopathological and microbial examinations revealed that PDD might have caused a presumptive systemic infection in the seal. Genomic analysis of the isolated PDD strain GCUPdd revealed the presence of pPHDD1like plasmid and several major virulence factors of PDD, such as damselysin, phobalysin, and phospholipase. Notably, strain GCUPdd also harbored a gene cluster involved in histamine production (histidyl-tRNA synthetase, histidine decarboxylase, and histidine-histamine antiporter) and exhibited significantly higher histamine-producing ability than the reference PDD strain. This strain also demonstrates cytotoxic effects on human cells, thus highlighting its zoonotic potential. Although its pathogenic role in pinnipeds remains unclear, this study highlights the importance of monitoring PDD in marine environments and the need for further surveillance concerning its pathogenicity and role in public health. Our findings contribute to a better understanding of the risk factors for histamine fish poisoning caused by PDD and provide insights into microbial diversity in marine mammals 1
Keywords: Photobacterium damselae subsp. damselae, Marine mammal, risk factor, Cytotoxicity, Histamine poisoning
Received: 11 Feb 2025; Accepted: 27 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Cha, Park, Lee, Park, Na, Kim, Lee, Lim, Uh, Jung, Kim, Kim, Han and Kim. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Jee Eun Han, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, 702-701, North Gyeongsang, Republic of Korea
Ji Hyung Kim, Gachon University, Seongnam, Republic of Korea
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