Characterizing disease
resistance in native oysters
that have experienced
disease pressure
Steven Roberts, Roxanna Smolowitz, Rick Karney
Northeastern Regional Aquaculture Center

Disease MVineyard ?
Resistance flickr | cpurrin1
Roxannna Smolowitz
Rick Karney

Market size

Without Pressure
apoptosis
protease

n.d.

n.d.

High Mobility Group Protein

Apoptosis – BCL-X
• Resistant oyster strains could downregulate
apoptosis suppression
• Allowing for increased apoptosis
• Decreasing number of cells available for
Perkinsus proliferation

Schematic
Parasite
Hemocytes
Text
BCL-X
BCL-X
Resistant Wild-type

causative or
associative?

Does it matter?
Markers ?

Summary
• Offspring of survivors of heavy disease
pressure are more tolerant to disease
• Mechanisms involved in host responses to
P. marinus include proteases, apoptosis, and
molecule signaling
• Careful selection of broodstock (potentially
aided by markers) can benefit aquaculture
and conservation efforts

Future
• Increased analysis on current data set
• Analyze gene expression patterns in
different locations under different
diseased pressure
• Application of markers
• Could assignment be made via gene expression?