Exposure to anoxia of the clam Chamelea gallina

Effect of environmental factors on survival and growth of quahog parasite unknown (QPX) in vitro

“…It is possible that very low levels of dissolved oxygen could limit the distribution of QPX in the marine environment. However, low levels of dissolved oxygen are known to depress immune systems of marine mollusks (Chen et al, 2007;Matozzo et al, 2005). Therefore, hypoxic conditions in the field could affect both QPX and hard clams and resulting disease development might be difficult to forecast from laboratory experiments alone.…”

Effects of high temperatures on functional responses of haemocytes in the clam Chamelea gallina

“…Numerous studies have demonstrated that defence mechanisms in bivalves are susceptible to changes in environmental factors, such as temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, food availability and presence of pollutants [8,13,30,31,32]. In particular, increases in temperature have been shown to induce mortality in bivalves, probably owing to temperature-induced immunosuppression in these animals [33,34].…”

Immunological function in marine invertebrates: Responses to environmental perturbation

“…Changes in environmental parameters such as temperature [35e40], salinity [31,41e43], air exposure [39,44,45], seawater pH [46], hypoxia [47] and anoxia [48,49] as well as changes in concentrations of ammonia [50] and nitrite [51] have been shown to reduce phagocytic activity significantly. Additionally, phagocytic activity is significantly reduced by a number of anthropogenically-induced stressors, such as mechanical disturbance related to aquaculture [45,52,53] and pollution, via contaminants such as butyltins [54], polyaromatic hydrocarbons [55], pesticides [56] and metals including; lead [20], cadmium [57], copper [33,35] mercuric chloride (HgCl 2 ) and methylmercury chloride (CH 3 HgCl) [58].…”

“…Yet this method does not elucidate the mechanism of bactericidal activity, merely showing a response due to direct killing [82]. A method more commonly used investigates the lysozyme-like bactericidal activity of the cell-free haemolymph [49,91]. Lysozyme is a lysosomal enzyme capable of hydrolyzing mucopolysaccharides (bacterial cell wall constituents) [109], therefore measuring its activity measures the ability of the cell-free haemolymph to undertake bactericidal killing, via the production and activity of hydrolytic enzymes.…”