Jeff Gauthier, M.Sc. 

 ACADEMIA
  • Ph. D. Biology @ U. Laval (2016-)
  • M.Sc. Biology @ U. Laval (2014-2016)
  • B.Sc. Biochemistry @ U. Laval (2010-2013)
Phone: 1-418-656-2131 #406785
E-mail: jeff.gauthier.1@ulaval.ca
Symbionts from the microbial flora may be seen as "expansion packs" as they provide an accessory genome to their hosts.  Thereby, they confer additional functions such as treatment of otherwise indigestible metabolites and improved disease resistance.  I am particularly interested in the latter aspect. 

Ongoing projects

FishProbio: Efficient and sustaining alternative strategy to prevent and treat two major opportunistic diseases in salmonids, columnaris and furonculosis. 
SORDAC-MAPAQ, Coll. S. Charette (IBIS). 
Fig I. TEM micrograph of Aeromonas salmonicida, the causative agent of salmonid furunculosis,
Fig II. A crowded brook charr farm basin.
Furunculosis is a major opportunistic infection affecting salmonids worldwide. The brook charr (Salvelinus fontinalis), primary salmonid species in Quebec aquaculture, is heavily affected by this disease. The etiological agent, Aeromonas salmonicida, is naturally present in the resident microbial community of salmonids. 
Under inadequate conditions, however, the pathogen undergoes a shift in virulence as a response to the destabilisation of the host microbial flora. Currently available methods to treat furunculosis have been pushed to their limits, as they either favour antibiotic resistance or induce harmful adverse effects to the farmed fish. Endogenous probiotics are a promising alternative, since they are innocuous to the fish itself, to the environment and to human consumers. In this study, we use in vitro antagonism screening assays and next-generation sequencing to unravel efficient probiotic candidates from the brook charr against A. salmonicida.

Publications

  • GAUTHIER J, Rouleau-Breton S, Charette SJ, Derome N. (2019) Stimulated Growth and Innate Immunity in Brook Charr (Salvelinus fontinalis) Treated with a General Probiotic (Bactocell®) and Two Endogenous Probiotics That Inhibit Aeromonas salmonicida In Vitro. Microorganisms. 2019 Jul 6;7(7). pii: E193.
  • GAUTHIER J, Lavoie C, Charette SJ, Derome N (2019). Chapter 2: Host-microbiota interactions and their importance in promoting growth and disease resistance in farmed salmonids. In: Microbial Communities in Aquaculture Ecosystems. Springer Verlag, ISBN 3030161897.
  • Vincent AT, GAUTHIER J, Charette SJ, Derome N (2019). Chapter 1: The rise and fall of antibiotics in aquaculture. In: Microbial Communities in Aquaculture Ecosystems. Springer Verlag, ISBN 3030161897.
  • GAUTHIER J, Vincent AT, Charette SJ, Derome N. (2018) A brief history of bioinformatics. Briefings in Bioinformatics, bby063. https://doi.org/10.1093/bib/bby063
  • GAUTHIER J, Vincent AT, Charette SJ, and Derome N. (2017) Strong Genomic and Phenotypic Heterogeneity in the Aeromonas Sobria Species Complex. Frontiers in Microbiology 8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2017.02434.
  • Seghouani H., Garcia-Rangel C.E., Füller J., GAUTHIER J. and Derome N. (2017) Walleye Autochthonous Bacteria as Promising Probiotic Candidates against Flavobacterium columnare. Frontiers in Microbiology 18;8:1349.
  • GAUTHIER J, Charette SJ, Derome N. (2017) Draft Genome Sequence of Pseudomonas fluorescens ML11A, an Endogenous Strain from Brook Charr with Antagonistic Properties Against Aeromonas salmonicida subsp. salmonicida.  Genome Announcements (e01716-16).
  • Derome N, GAUTHIER J, Boutin S, Llewellyn M (2016) Chapter 4  : Bacterial Opportunistic Pathogens of Fish. Advances in Environmental Microbiology 3 : 81-108.
  • Derome N, GAUTHIER J, Boutin S, Llewellyn M (2016) Chapter 5  : Fungal Secondary Invaders of Fish. Advances in Environmental Microbiology 3 : 109-126.​​