Biogenic reefs built by oysters and other suspension feeders are vital components of estuarine ecosystems. By consuming phytoplankton, suspension feeders act to suppress accumulation of organic matter in the water column. Nutrient loading increases the rate of primary production, thereby causing eutrophication. As suspension feeders consume more organic matter from increasing abundance of phyto...

A quantitative competitive polymerase chain reaction (QCPCR) assay was developed for the oyster parasite Perkinsus marinus. PCR primers for the rRNA gene region of P. marinus amplified DNA isolated from P. marinus but not from Perkinsus atlanticus, Crassostrea virginica, or the dinoflagellates Peridinium sp., Gymnodinium sp., or Amphidinium sp. A mutagenic primer was used to create a competitor...

Since 1972, several herpes-like virus infections have been reported among different bivalve species around the world. Most of these reports involved larvae or juveniles presenting high mortalities. Two case reports of herpes-like viruses concerned adult oysters, Crassostrea virginica in USA and Ostrea angasi in Australia. Molecular techniques including PCR and in situ hybridization (ISH) have b...

Herein, it was reported and compared the chemical composition and nutritional value of the most consumed species as fresh cultivated mushrooms: Agaricus bisporus (white and brown mushrooms), Pleurotus ostreatus (oyster mushroom), Pleurotus eryngii (King oyster mushroom), Lentinula edodes (Shiitake) and Flammulina velutipes (Golden needle mushroom). Shiitake revealed the highest levels of macron...

Oyster larvae (Crassostrea virginica) could enhance their settlement success by moving toward the seafloor in the strong turbulence associated with coastal habitats. We characterized the behavior of individual oyster larvae in grid-generated turbulence by measuring larval velocities and flow velocities simultaneously using infrared particle image velocimetry. We estimated larval behavioral velo...

The multifactorial etiology of massive Crassostrea gigas summer mortalities results from complex interactions between oysters, opportunistic pathogens and environmental factors. In a field survey conducted in 2014 in the Mediterranean Thau Lagoon (France), we evidenced that the development of the toxic dinoflagellate Alexandrium catenella, which produces paralytic shellfish toxins (PSTs), was c...

The Sydney rock oyster (Saccostrea glomerata) (SRO) is an oyster species that only occurs in estuaries along Australia’s east coast. The SRO industry evolved from commercial gathering of oyster in the 1790s to a high production volume aquaculture industry in the 1970s. However, since the late 1970s the SRO industry has experienced a significant and continuous decline in production quantities an...

Gametes (sperm) and fertilized eggs (embryos) of the Mediterranean sea urchin, Paracentrotus lividus, and the Japanese oyster, Crassostrea gigas, were used to investigate the toxicity of two marine sediments, one polluted by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and the other by heavy metals. The sediment samples were freeze-dried for storage, and three different treatments were used for analy...

The neuroendocrine-immune (NEI) regulatory network is a complex system, which plays an indispensable role in the immunity of host. In this study, a neuroendocrine immunomodulatory axis (NIA)-like pathway mediated by the nervous system and haemocytes was characterized in the oyster Crassostrea gigas Once invaded pathogen was recognized by the host, the nervous system would temporally release neu...

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are important components of the host innate immune response against microbial invasion. We previously characterized the first AMP from an oyster, a defensin, that was shown to be continuously expressed in the mantle of Crassostrea gigas. In this study, we report the cDNA cloning of two new isoforms of the defensin AMP family (Cg-defh1 and Cg-defh2) from the hemocyt...