Effects of siRNA silencing on the susceptibility of the fish cell line CHSE-214 to Yersinia ruckeri

Yersinia ruckeri is a facultative intracellular enterobacterium mostly known as the causative agent of enteric redmouth disease in salmonid fish. In the present study, we applied RNA inhibition to silence twenty pre-selected genes on the genome of a fish cell line (CHSE-214) followed by a gentamicin assay to quantify the effect of silencing on the cells’ susceptibility to infection and found that silencing of 18 out of 20 genes significantly reduced the number of Y. ruckeri recovered. These findings improve our understanding of the infection process by Y. ruckeri and of the interactions between this bacterial pathogen and host cells.