This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project is based on preliminary data that suggest that the presence of a yet uncharacterized saccharide, designated as lathyrose, on the surfaces of hemocytes of the American oyster, Crassostrea virginica, that binds to the Lathyrus odoratus lectin may serve as a marker for innate resistance to the protistan pathogen Haplosporidium nelsoni (MSX). After initial further verification of this phenomenon, involving hemocytes from oysters collected from areas where mass mortalities due to MSX is known to occur (Delaware and Chesapeake Bays) and areas where MSX-caused mortalities have not occurred although the causative agent H. nelsoni is known to be present (North Carolina south of Cape Fear, South Carolina, coastal Georgia) or is known not to occur (Apalachicola and Galveston Bays, Mississippi coast), Atlantic LittleNeck ClamFarms proposes to initiate selective breeding of marker-tagged, resistant stock of oysters.
