Bonamia ostreae is a protozoan, affiliated to the order Haplosporidia and to the phylum Cercozoa. This parasite is intracellular and infects haemocytes, cells notably involved in oyster defence mechanisms. Bonamiosis due to the parasite B. ostreae is a disease affecting the flat oyster, Ostrea edulis. The strategies used by protozoan parasites to circumvent host defence mechanisms remain largel...

Cultured pearls are human creations formed by inserting a nucleus and a small piece of mantle tissue into a living shelled mollusc, usually a pearl oyster. Although many pearl observations intuitively suggest a possible rotation of the nucleated pearl inside the oyster, no experimental demonstration of such a movement has ever been done. This can be explained by the difficulty of observation of...

Light-sensitivity is important for mollusc survival, as it plays a vital role in reproduction and predator avoidance. Light-sensitivity has been demonstrated in the adult Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas, but the genes associated with light-sensitivity remain unclear. In the present study, we designed experiments to identify the genes associated with light-sensitivity in adult oysters. First, w...

Use of SNPs has been favoured due to their abundance in plant and animal genomes, accompanied by the falling cost and rising throughput capacity for detection and genotyping. Here, we present in vitro (obtained from targeted sequencing) and in silico discovery of SNPs, and the design of medium-throughput genotyping arrays for two oyster species, the Pacific oyster, Crassostrea gigas, and Europe...

The boring sponge Cliona celata is a nuisance species that can have deleterious effects on eastern oyster Crassostrea virginica growth, condition, and survival. Surprisingly, however, these effects have not been well documented and when examined, results have been equi-vocal. In this study, we provide a direct comparison of growth, condition, and survival of sponge-colonized and uncolonized oys...

This study evaluates the freezing response of three different cell types, Pacific oyster embryos (~50 m in diameter), Jurkat cells and HeLa cells (~12 to 15 m’s in diameter), using cryomicroscopy. Freezing experiments were performed on oyster embryos at cooling rates of either 5 or 10 ̊C/min, while Jurkats were cooled at either 1 or 10 ̊C/min and HeLa cells were cooled at either 1, 15 or 20 ̊C/...

Historic baselines are important in developing our understanding of ecosystems in the face of rapid global change. While a number of studies have sought to determine changes in extent of exploited habitats over historic timescales, few have quantified such changes prior to late twentieth century baselines. Here, we present, to our knowledge, the first ever large-scale quantitative assessment of...

Diel-cycling hypoxia is widespread in shallow portions of estuaries and lagoons, especially in systems with high nutrient loads resulting from human activities. Far less is known about the effects of this form of hypoxia than deeper-water seasonal or persistent low dissolved oxygen. We examined field patterns of diel-cycling hypoxia and used field and laboratory experiments to test its effects ...

Shorelines at the interface of marine, estuarine and terrestrial biomes are among the most degraded and threatened habitats in the coastal zone because of their sensitivity to sea level rise, storms and increased human utilization. Previous efforts to protect shorelines have largely involved constructing bulkheads and seawalls which can detrimentally affect nearshore habitats. Recently, efforts...

The search for novel approaches to establishing ecological baselines (reference conditions) is constrained by the fact that most ecological studies span the past few decades, at most, and investigate ecosystems that have been substantially altered by human activities for decades, centuries, or more. Paleobiology, archeology, and history provide historical ecological context for biological conse...