The aquaculture of molluscs is seriously affected worldwide by bacterial pathogens that cause high losses in hatcheries as well as in natural beds. The main responsible for the mortality outbreaks is a number of Vibrio species that are considered important pathogens in aquaculture. The pathologies caused by vibrios in bivalves have been described since the 1960s; however, over recent years, suc...

Amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) analysis was carried out on representative individuals of wild Haliotis asinina using 64 primer combinations. Nine polymorphic AFLPs were cloned and sequenced. Sequence-specific primers were designed from six AFLP-derived fragments. Three sequence-characterized amplified region (SCAR) markers (HaSCAR(320), HaSCAR(295), HaSCAR(327)) were selected for...

Gracilaria tenuistipitata var. liui Zhang et Xia, which is farmed in brackish water ponds of southern Taiwan as a major food of sea abalone, produces poor yields in winter. This study investigated the effects of year, location (pond), and season on the physiological responses of G. tenuistipitata to varying temperature. Neither year nor pond affected the physiological parameters. Season signifi...

All California abalone species have been shown to be susceptible to infection with the bacterial agent of abalone withering syndrome (WS), although expression of signs of the disease may vary between species and with environmental conditions. We examined thermal modulation of WS expression in green abalone Haliotis fulgens at temperatures mimicking El Niño (18.0°C) and La Niña (14.2°C) events i...

Mineralized biological tissues offer insight into how nature has evolved these components to optimize multifunctional purposes. These mineral constituents are weak by themselves, but interact with the organic matrix to produce materials with unexpected mechanical properties. The hierarchical structure of these materials is at the crux of this enhancement. Microstructural features such as organi...

BACKGROUND Global climate change has resulted in a southerly range expansion of the habitat modifying sea urchin Centrostephanus rodgersii to the east coast of Tasmania, Australia. Various studies have suggested that this urchin outcompetes black-lipped abalone (Haliotis rubra) for resources, but experiments elucidating the mechanisms are lacking. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We outline a n...