The nervous and immune systems of invertebrates can exchange information through neuropeptides. Furthermore, some opioid peptides can function as endogenous immune system messengers and participate in the regulation of the immune responses. The present study was designed to investigate the effects of leucine-enkephalin (L-ENK) on the activity of catalase (CAT) and hydrogen peroxide (H(2)O(2)) c...

The protozoan pathogen Perkinsus marinus is the causative agent of Dermo, a lethal disease of the eastern oyster Crassostrea virginica, but not the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas. To understand the response of these two oysters to parasite exposure, a suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH) method was employed to characterize genes up-regulated during parasite challenge in both hemocytes ...

Summer mortality has been reported in the Pacific oyster, Crassostrea gigas, for many years in different parts of the world. The causes of this phenomenon are complex. The multidisciplinary program “MOREST”, coordinated by IFREMER, was initiated to understand the causes of summer mortality of Crassostrea gigas juveniles in France and to reduce its impact on oyster production. Within this progra...

Oysters provide a critical habitat, are a food resource for higher trophic levels and support important commercial fisheries throughout the world. Oyster reefs can improve water quality by removing phytoplankton. While sediment denitrification may be enhanced adjacent to oyster reefs, little is known about nitrification and denitrification associated with living oysters and their shells. We mea...

Pacific oyster (Crassostrea gigas) is a highly commercial species with the highest production rate in aquaculture world. This has been raised on Crimean and Romanian Coasts since 1980s reports of potentially breeding wild populations those regions. However, presence this Turkish Coast Black Sea are literally unknown. Therefore, here we investigated occurrence, population density size-age struct...

Hemocytes mediate a series of immune reactions essential for bivalve survival in the environment, however, the impact of harmful algal species and their associated phycotoxins upon bivalve immune system is under debate. To better understand the possible toxic effects of these toxins, Crassostrea gigas hemocytes were exposed to brevetoxin (PbTx-2). Hemocyte viability, monitored through the neutr...