The Eastern and Pacific Oysters – from Transcript to Transcriptomes
Charlie Cunningham, Dept. of Biology, University of New Mexico
2 Mar 2007
The Eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica, and the Pacific oyster, C. gigas, are species of global economic significance as well as important components of marine estuarine ecosystems. Despite this, little is known of the molecules and pathways that underpin the oyster's response to environmental stressors or infection. Until recently, such studies, if carried out at all, have been done on a gene - by - gene basis and have often involved the study of genes with known homologues in other species. In order to address this knowledge deficit, the world-wide oyster scientific community has pooled resources to allow the genomic and transcriptomic enablement of C. gigas and C. virginica. Hollings Marine Lab has played the pivotal role in coordinating the production and implementation of these genomic tools. My seminar will outline the work I carried out during my 15 months as the Senator Ernest F Hollings Visiting Scholar at HML and will focus primarily on the construction and use of the oyster microarray to develop diagnostic indicators of oyster infection.