Project Summary

     With the United States' reliance on seafood imports to meet seafood demand, there is a need to increase aquaculture production, particularly the culture of bivalves such as oysters. Oysters provide an environmentally friendly agricultural commodity that can be cost-effective. However there are still bottlenecks, such as disease mortality, within the oyster industry that are inhibiting adequate production. Specifically, Dermo (caused by the parasite Perkinsus marinus) has devastated populations along the entire east coast. Previous research has demonstrated that genetic factors can be selected for that contributes to disease resistance in the eastern oyster. However, there are limited comparisons of local, naturally selected for (having experienced heavy disease pressure) oysters and non-local, proven resistant strains in relation to factors such as P. marinus infection, growth and genetics. In addition, the exact mechanisms responsible for disease resistance and P. marinus tolerance are not well understood. Therefore, the objectives of the proposed research are to 1) demonstrate seed originating from local wild oysters can contribute to the development of disease resistance broodstock and 2) genetically characterize regional oysters that are Dermo resistant. Completion of the first objective will determine the practicality of using local, surviving oysters under heavy disease pressure as broodstock. Completion of the second objective will provide a means to identify oyster that have traits associated with disease resistance. Another primary objective of the proposal is to communicate with northeastern hatchery operations and help them to identify local, Dermo resistant broodstocks. This will be done in the form of websites, directed mailing, and public presentation. The cumulative results of the proposed research will provide insight on host-parasite interactions associated with oyster disease, which will ultimately facilitate increased oyster aquaculture production. The techniques developed in this proposal, such as using expressed genes as markers, could also be applied to other important species to increase production.

Field Notes Webpage - Additional perspectives from the field (and some from the lab) - including photos, movies, graphs, and more.   updated

Progress Report  July 2006   recently added



Images of Field Site


Genetic Resources for Crassostrea
All Nucleotide sequences from NCBI Genbank  

Marine Genomics Project   This is the web-based interface to bioinformatics data management and data analysis tools developed by the bioinformatics group at the DB2E dept. of the Medical University of South Carolina for the Marine Genomics Consortium at the Hollings Marine Lab in Charleston, SC