Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Next year's meeting will take place in conjunction with the NSA meeting in Providence, RI. Marta Gomez-Chiarri will be chair for the meeting next year. Station Reports Kim Reece VIMS: Bivalve Genetic Studies Genetics of the disease organisms and genetics of bivalves " Even if you see genetic structure, it is a huge jump (especially given the history of stocking in CB) to say that populations are locally adapted. " Developing molecular genetic markers focusing on three bivalve species Ryan Carnegie VIMS Shellfish Pathology Laboratory Health management in wild and cultured shellfish populations and oyster conservation with a focus on Haplosporiduim nelsoni (MSX disease) and Perkinsus marinus (dermo) in C. virginica Ximing Guo: Oyster Genetics and Breeding at Rutgers Selective Breeding, e.g., Cross-breeding of selected strains (Rawson) Cytogenetics (evaluation of interstrain triploids, flurescence in situ hybridization) Molecular Genetics and Genomics Interstrain triploids versus diploid hybrids University of Maine / Rawson Concerns regarding inbreeding led to interline hybrids and timing of deployment Controversy around who gets extra seed&one hatchery to another or the hatchery to growers. Marta Gomez-Chiarri University of Rhode Island : Immune defenses in oysters Goal: find mechanisms of disease resistance in oysters and host-pathogen in oysters John Scarpa: Overview of the HBOI Molluscan Research Program (Fort Pierce, Fl) " Shellfish retraining programs: " Enhancing Production of Cultured Hard Clams (Mercenaria mercenaria) in Florida " Sunray venus clams: new species to diversify the Florida hard clam aquaculture industry " Conch Heritage Network: The Queen Conch is a species of concern " Aquatic animal health laboratory: diagnostic and analytical services " Harbor Branch Clams, Inc: Produce approximately 30% of clam seed for Florida and also supplied Georgia, Carolinas and Virginia Molluscan Broodstock Program/ OSU (Ford Evans and Chris Langdon) In 2004, implemented a rotational breeding program to control the rate of inbreeding within lines. But we may be setting ourselves up for outbreeding depression, or breaking up some of the beneficial gene clusters of these very successful lines. Also investigating post-harvest oyster quality in Alaska and using a cooperative effort among OSU, Alaska Sea Grant, Fishery Industrial Technology Center to look at an industry based on the half-shell market Aquaculture Genetics and Breeding Technology Center, VIMS Stan Allen SOS production in Virginia has increased from under 10 million in 2005 to 100 million projected in 2007. Looked at two basic approaches for environment by genotype interactions Need to analyze the contribution of diseases to mortality line by line---as the Lousisana stocks cant handle MSX, die quickly and skew the results. Joth Davis: Taylor Resources Hatchery Bivalve Culture in Puget Sound, mostly introduced: Pacific oyster, Kumamoto oysters, European oyster, Olympia oyster, Manilla clam, Mussel, geoduck Original WRAC project Objectives: Research Component: Five objectives for improving the efficiency of testing the crossbreeding potential of inbred lines Many goals: but will focus today on production and testing the performance of hybrid oysters (TRI) Major Products § Evidence for growth heterosis § Physiological and genomic predictors of hybrid yield § A two tiered hybrid testing program § Methods and protocols for testing yield Jason Curole: Update from Hedgecock lab Larval heterosis: consistently observe heterosis at the larval stage and at the adult stage Larval size distribution ODRP Looking at summer mortality Kumamoto GenEn USDA (finished) Fellowship (Jason Curole) Seeing a maternal effect on mitochondrial expression JGI: Oyster Genomics Work Jason Curole (Hedgecock) JGI Oyster Projecct Paired-end sequencing of 150,000 cDNAs Preliminary results from OX looked good so JGI went for a full production run. Alas, those did not look as good. Conversation about Summer Mortality But Dan and Pierre are still out due to weather, so Joth presenting Key findings: 19-20 degree sustained temperatures trigger mortality in France and along the West Coast Time and time again, mortality comes back to hitting this 20 degree threshold In some cases, Lower mortalities observed in MBP lines but it is not consistent 51x35 and 35x51 got wiped out in 2005 Other parameters " Dissolved Oxygen: DO can be quite low later in the month of September that may be associated with mortality events. DO related directly to tidal exchange " Much higher mortality when oysters are cultured on-bottom " Much higher mortality at 30cm off bottom than at 70 cm off bottom " No Ploidy influence " Phytoplaknton: o In Willapa bay, diatoms abundant with low dinoflagellate numbers. Ceratium and Pseudonitzschia were most abundant toxic samples o In Totten Inlet: low levels of diatoms with high dinoflagellates. Selected taxa dominated by Ceratium, but toxic species were uncommon " Systemic Bacterial Infections " Vibrio and herpes clearly indicated in larval and juvenile mortalities in CA " Asymetrical shell growth o Triploid oysters show overgrowth of flat shell by cupped shell o About 30% of samples with multifocal necrosis of gill tissues o Pathology possible due to overheating and exposure during low tide Current Research " Test the hypothesis that small number of genes control resistance to summer mortality through genomic mapping of variation in survival, growth, and reproductive allocation " Breeding program focused on selecting for resistance to summer mortality, to determine how variation in reproductive allocation may interact with stress conditions associated with summer mortality " To evaluate selected environmental parameters and observations which appear to predict increased summer mortality risk and can be used to assess the performance of outplanted treatment groups " To ensure that there is a timely response to oyster mortality events on commercial oyster beds, and harvest areas and provide feedback on those events to producers. Addendum WERA99 Tuesday, February 27, 2007, 5:00-6:00pm This mini meeting was held to continue the discussion started on Sunday with members of the group that were unable to make it over the weekend due to travel problems. Addendum WERA99 Tuesday, February 27, 2007, 5:00-6:00pm This mini meeting was held to continue the discussion started on Sunday with members of the group that were unable to make it over the weekend due to travel problems. At the conference in Korea, Jean-Francois Samain had a powerpoint presentation that he used to review the summer mortality project (MOREST) in France. There was a question to Pierre Boudry about being able to get a copy of this presentation for the group. Pierre responded that he will ask Jean-Francois for a copy. Pierre Boudry Oyster Genome Update from France Following the application to JGI, Pierre applied for a BAC sequencing project, with the idea that it would be complementary. The problem was that it wasnt the same materialbut maybe it would help in some ways and not overlap between France and US. This project was accepted conditional to the JGI projectso nothing could be done. Then US did the EST the project and Genoscope (France) accepted sequencing of ESTs too. They did roughly the same thing but most of the cDNAs are different than what was done in the USso some overlap but not much. One of the main differences is that this is based on normalized libraries 1) Immosite from colleagues from Montpeliar. This is done and in Paris ready to be sequenced 2) One on larvae which has not been completed 3) One on gonadhas been completed and ready to be sequenced. Not publicly available yet but will be at some point (6 months or so) Big question: whether we go for the whole genome sequencing, what will be the best strategy with science and technical aspects AND the political side of the story. Looks like China is ready to do the workthey want 3 million dollars to do the work in six months. But the idea of just providing money to have the work done is not very attractive to Francesame for US? Following the step of sequencing, this is just the beginning of the story, a lot to be done afterwardsmaybe US, France and so on could offer to do the annotation or share the work among different sequencing platforms or do the work based on BAC libraries as it was done in many species until now. Best solution in terms of efficiency? In terms of politics? Sequencing is really just the beginning. How would we even get it assembled? I dont know that any of us have the technical expertise or the computing power to do this. The idea of the workshop is to bring people in who have the political and the technical experience to do this: sequencing, assembly, annotation. In 1-2 years time we can hope that we will have enough EST sequences because there are 2 projects in Europe plus the Hedgecock project. Start with 30,000 hope to get 100,000 and depending on redundancy of sequences, will continue or not, plus the 150,000 from USA&.we get a massive amount of data and maybe a launching pad to get the genome sequenced. Listserve specifically dedicated to this objective so that everyone can be up to date on what is going on? Very small number of emails that you would recieved but everyone could be kept abreast of what is going on. Could build from the WERA list. Clear that whole story was driven by US but it looks like the idea is now to move to a more international communitydont know if we can accomplish everything in Europe, but genoscope considers oyster an important species. Wherever the work is done at the end is not importantbetter to work together internationally and get this done. OGC: steering committee of the oyster genome consortium is talking about this international effort. International workshop is the place to start. Volkswagen is paying to sequence the horse genome. BAC based. Tom Coaker has convinced NIH to sequence the Tilapia genome. Very realistic, can come from anywhere, leave our options open. List of all the genomes that have been done and a list of all the applied projects (like ours) that are on the way&.how they are organized, how theyve been done, what are the options to join forces between countries, etc. Shrimp genome is an international effortkind of an impetus for OGC. Salmon and trout communities are very well organized and bigbut very useful to see how these groups have organized and advocated to have it done. We should have some people from the other aquaculture groups whove gotten their genomes sequenced so that we can follow their lead. Pierre will see if he can get some money from France for this too. The sooner the better. Broad and quick update from France from Pierre The moras project is finished we are currently working on a book that will summarize everything that was done. John Francoise is working very hard on itand book will be both in French and English French research groups working on oysters: Immunology and defense mechanisms (Montpellier) Physiology (Brest and Caen) Genetics (La Tremblade, Ifremer) SNP identification in C. gigas (C. Sauvage) Analysis of codon usage (8800 ESTs) (C. Sauvage) QTL mapping of resistance to summer mortality in 5 F2 families Functional genomics of R and S selected lines Development oyster cDNA microarrays Gene Expression Profiling Analysis and Comparison at the levels In Montpelier Ana Tirape worked with Viviane Boulo on immune related genes during ontogenesis Antimicrobial defense mechanisms (montelier) Genome evolution and speciation in closely related bivalve taxa Have been working to implement a breeding program with some of the oyster farmers in Francenot easy because it is not in their habit to develop these kind of things but is one of the results of Morest. They use the example of MBP that farmers in France should get together to do breeding. Pierre thinks he should leave genetics and go to sociology nowpolitically, it has been very difficult.

WERA-099 provided a forum for US and international molluscan geneticists, physiologists and pathologists to exchange ideas and information on genetics, reproduction, diseases, chromosome and genetic manipulation techniques, broodstock management and breeding programs. Multi-disciplinary and inter-regional exchanges among participants revealed new directions of scientific enquiry and facilitated formulation of new research questions. The committee helped overcome problems associated with geographical isolation facing many researchers located at remote marine field stations. Presentations by Dr. Pierre Boudry, IFREMER, France, provided US researchers with information on a large-scale oyster genetics program in France and discussion of international efforts to sequence the genome of the Pacific oyster.

2006 Publications Matson, S., Evans, F. and C. Langdon. 2006 Specific pathogen-free culture of the Pacific oyster (Crassostrea gigas) in a breeding research program: effect of water treatment on growth and survival. Aquaculture. 253: 475-484. Evans, S. and C. Langdon. Effect of dietary restriction during juvenile development on adult performance of Pacific oysters (Crassostrea gigas). Aquaculture, accepted Evans, S. and C. Langdon. Effects of genotype x environment interactions on the selection of broadly adapted Pacific oysters (Crassostrea gigas). Aquaculture, 261: 522-534. Evans, S. and C. Langdon. 2006. Direct and correlated responses to selection for individual body weight in the Pacific oyster (Crassostrea gigas). Aquaculture, 261: 546-555. Delaporte, M, Chu F.L, Langdon, C, Moal , J, Lambert, C, Samain, J-F and Soudant, P. 2007. Changes in biochemical and hemocyte parameters of the Pacific oysters Crassostrea gigas fed T-Iso supplemented with lipid emulsions rich in 20:5n-3. J. Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 343:261-275.