Immune response of pearl oysters to stress and diseases

Abstract

Pearl oysters are found in the marine ecosystem. Due to their frequent exposure to microbial pathogens and environmental perturbations, they have developed a multifaceted innate immune system with differentially expressed immune‐related genes in response to a range of stress via vast coordinated immune reactions, such as immune recognition, signal transduction, synthesis of antimicrobial peptides, encapsulation and phagocytosis of the circulating haemocytes. The species are farmed to produce pearls. With the increasing adoption of aquaculture techniques in pearl production, there is the need to understand their culture environment and their immune response mechanisms. Multi‐omic studies have documented responses to nuclei insertion operation, diseases and various environmental conditions in Pinctada fucata martensii (Dunker, 1880), Pinctada maxima (Jameson, 1901), Pinctada margaritifera and Pteria penguin (Roding, 1798). Among the various stressors, nuclei insertion operation has been identified as a prevailing factor modifying gene expression. Other factors include life stage, air exposure, temperature, salinity, metals and organic contaminants. This manuscript details the response mechanism of these pearl oysters to the various stressors.

Influence of Age on Pearl Production Performance, Enzymatic Activity, and Immune‐Related Gene Expression of the Pearl Oyster Pinctada fucata martensii

“…The nucleus insertion operation used to produce cultured pearls triggers an immune response from the host oyster's immune system (Huang et al. ; Adzigbli et al., in press). The pearl‐producing operation wounds the mantle of the pearl oyster severely and stimulates the significant expression of antioxidant enzymes in the hemolymph of the oyster (Wei et al.…”

Growth in pearl oysters: A review of genetic and environmental influences

“…The slow growth experienced by pearl oysters was also attributed to their immune response. Pearl oysters are known to be vulnerable to various environmental stress and disease that influence their physiological mechanism causing an initiation of immune response (Adzigbli, Hao, et al, ). During the immune response, immune and antioxidant enzymes and genes such as lysozyme and glutathione are expressed.…”

Integrated GC–MS- and LC–MS-Based Untargeted Metabolomics Studies of the Effect of Vitamin D3 on Pearl Production Traits in Pearl Oyster Pinctada fucata martensii

“…F. Gu et al, 2009). The traditional method for culturing P. f. martensii is at the open sea in a floating raft or a vertical pile exposing them to variable and sometimes extreme environmental conditions (Adzigbli et al, 2020). This susceptibility has caused a decreasing trend in pearl yield since the 1990s due to mass mortality and deteriorating environments (Miyazaki et al, 1999;He et al, 2008;Qiu et al, 2014).…”