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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Orono, Maine » National Cold Water Marine Aquaculture Center » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #324488
Research Project: Genetic Improvement Of Marine Fish and Shellfish

Location: National Cold Water Marine Aquaculture Center

Title: The performance of oyster families exposed to Dermo disease is contingent on the source of pathogen exposure

Author
item Proestou, Dina
item BEN-HORIN, TAL - University Of Rhode Island
item MOSS SMALL, JESSICA - Virginia Institute Of Marine Science
item ALLEN JR, STANDISH - Virginia Institute Of Marine Science

Submitted to: World Aquaculture Society Meeting
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/23/2015
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Here we report preliminary results from a course of research integrating pathology, feeding ecology, genetics and genomics to address resistance to Dermo disease in eastern oysters. We challenged six oyster families with Perkinsus marinus, the etiological agent of Dermo disease, through either direct injection or feeding. These families were derived from dams determined to be either resistant or susceptible to the parasite in a previous study crossed with sires from either selected lines (hANA, CROSBreed) or the unselected line (WTS). We sampled mortality daily, and to explore variability in the host immune response and disease progression, we censored oysters for transcriptome and disease analyses at four time points (6hr, 36hr, 7d, 28d) following initial exposure. All animals were sacrificed on day 42 of the experiment. As expected, we found the mortality hazard was greatest in oysters exposed to P. marinus through direct injection. In this group, the mortality hazard was greatest in families with sires originating from CROSBreed and WTS lines while predicted dam susceptibility had no effect. In contrast, when exposure to P. marinus occurred through feeding sire had no effect on mortality. Here, mortality in families with Dermo-susceptible dams was over four times that of families with a resistant dam. These counterintuitive results implicate a range of processes that are likely to vary among individuals and collectively shape the ability for oyster hosts to resist and/or tolerate pathogens. Our upcoming analysis of transcriptomic and disease progression data will yield crucial insights into these complex patterns of Dermo resistance in oysters.