Toxicity of puffer fishes (Lagocephalus wheeleri Abe, Tabeta and Kitahama, 1984 and Lagocephalus sceleratus Gmelin, 1789) from the East Coast Waters of Peninsular Malaysia

Journal Contribution ResearchOnline@JCU
Simon, K.D.;Mazlan, A.G.;Usup, G.
Simon Das
Abstract

Toxicity analysis of the puffer fishes Lagocephalus wheeleri and Lagocephalus sceleratus from the East Coast Water of Peninsular Malaysia was carried out. The presence of tetrodotoxin (TTX) in fish tissue and cultures of bacteria isolated from the liver of the fish were determined. Detection of TTX was carried out by mouse bioassay, Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC) and High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). The bacteria Shewanella sp. was isolated from the liver of L. wheeleri while, Exiguobacterium sp. and Staphylococcus sp. were isolated from the liver of L. sceleratus. Mouse bioassay showed that tissue extracts of L. wheeleri and culture supernatants of Shewanella sp. were positive for TTX. Tissue extracts of L. sceleratus and culture supernatants of Exiguobacterium sp. and Staphylococcus sp. exhibited non-lethal toxicity to mice but the symptoms were not typical of TTX poisoning. The symptoms in mice, coupled with TLC and HPLC analysis indicated that the toxic factor in L. wheeleri and Shewanella sp. was TTX. This study has confirmed the toxicity of the puffer L. wheeleri and some of this toxicity may be attributed to symbiotic bacteria.

Journal

Journal of Biological Sciences

Publication Name

Journal of Biological Sciences

Volume

9

ISBN/ISSN

1812-5719

Edition

N/A

Issue

5

Pages Count

6

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N/A

Publisher

Asian Network for Scientific Information

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Publish Date

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Date

N/A

EISSN

N/A

DOI

10.3923/jbs.2009.482.487