Location: Pacific Shellfish Research Unit
Project Number: 2076-10600-001-001-R
Project Type: Reimbursable Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Apr 1, 2025
End Date: Mar 31, 2027
Objective:
To assess the behavioral and genomic responses of oysters exposed to the toxic algal species Microsystis aeruginosa. Data will be collected on clearance rate of oysters, valve opening rates, psuedofeces production, and the transcriptomic response of oysters exposed to M. aeruginosa.
Approach:
Cohorts of juvenile oysters (spat) will be exposed to either a toxin producing or non-toxin producing strain of Microcystis aeruginosa and oysters will be monitored for algal clearance rate, survival, psuedofeces production, valve opening rate and gene expression (transcriptomics). Multiple harmful algal bloom exposure variables will be assessed including varying concentrations of algae under two salinities as part of the experimental design. PI and technician will process the transcriptomic data using standard bioinformatic pipelines (mapping reads to the eastern oyster genome using the STAR aligner, counting abundance of gene features with RSEM) and determine differential expression of genes between oysters exposed to toxin and non toxin-producing strains of algae.