Laboratory Replication of Ostreid Herpes Virus (OsHV-1) Using Pacific Oyster Tissue Explants.

Pacific oysters ( or ) are one of the most economically important aquaculture species globally. Over the past two decades, ostreid herpesvirus (OsHV-1) has become a major pathogen of cultured Pacific oysters, resulting in widespread mortality with a global distribution. Experimental use of OsHV-1 is challenging for many reasons, including both complexity of host-pathogen dynamics and a lack of functioning model systems.

Potential of genomic technologies to improve disease resistance in molluscan aquaculture.

Molluscan aquaculture is a major contributor to global seafood production, but is hampered by infectious disease outbreaks that can cause serious economic losses. Selective breeding has been widely used to improve disease resistance in major agricultural and aquaculture species, and has clear potential in molluscs, albeit its commercial application remains at a formative stage. Advances in genomic technologies, especially the development of cost-efficient genomic selection, have the potential to accelerate genetic improvement.

Developments in marine invertebrate primary culture reveal novel cell morphologies in the model bivalve .

Cell culture provides useful model systems used in a wide range of biological applications, but its utility in marine invertebrates is limited due to the lack of immortalised cell lines. Primary cell and tissue cultures are typically used but remain poorly characterised for oysters, which can cause issues with experimental consistency and reproducibility. Improvements to methods of repeatable isolation, culture, and characterisation of oyster cells and tissues are required to help address these issues.

Using DNA Barcoding to Investigate Patterns of Species Utilisation in UK Shark Products Reveals Threatened Species on Sale.

Many shark populations are in decline, primarily due to overexploitation. In response, conservation measures have been applied at differing scales, often severely restricting sales of declining species. Therefore, DNA barcoding was used to investigate sales of shark products in fishmongers and fish and chip takeaways in England.

The effect of dietary neonicotinoid pesticides on non-flight thermogenesis in worker bumble bees (Bombus terrestris).

For bumble bees (genus Bombus), the capacity for non-flight thermogenesis is essential for two fundamental processes undertaken by adult workers, namely recovery from torpor after chilling and brood incubation. Farmland bees can be widely exposed to dietary residues of neurotoxic neonicotinoid insecticides that appear in the nectar and pollen of treated bee-attractive crops, which may harm them. An earlier study shows that dietary neonicotinoids cause complex alterations to thermoregulation in honey bees, but their effect on the thermogenic capabilities of individual bumble bees has been untested previously.