Establishment of stable GFP-tagged Vibrio aestuarianus strains for the analysis of bacterial infection-dynamics in the Pacific oyster, Crassostrea gigas.

Several marine pathogens are thought to be implicated in the summer mortality phenomenon that strikes the Pacific oyster stocks (Crassostrea gigas) in Europe since more than a decade. Although, since 2008, a herpes virus variant (microvar) is considered the main responsible for juvenile mortalities, the role of several associated bacteria is less clear. One of these, Vibrio aestuarianus, has often been detected in moribund oysters, and laboratory challenges proved its involvement in oyster death.