LABORATORY CULTURE OF HERMISSENDA

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The major objective of this research project is and continues to be the development of methods which will reliably enable the nudibranch mollusc, Hermissenda crassicornis, to be reared and maintained in laboratory culture for the purpose of establishing it as a standardized, non-mammalian, marine laboratory animal for biomedical research. The genetic, trophic, behavioral, and environmental experience and history of each adult can be defined because they will be produced by precisely established methods. They will be disease free and their performance and reliability for research use will be less variable and hence more predictable. this effort will support the growing use of Hermissenda as a high connectivity model for learning and memory studies. Towards the original specific aims of optimizing larval nutrition and control of facultative pathogens inhibiting successful larval culture through to metamorphosis, we have been successful. We can now reliably rear Hermissenda through its entire life cycle: from egg to egg through the F2 generation and will now extend our efforts towards (1) maximizing adult maintenance conditions for high fecundity and development rates on a steady year-round basis; (2) maximizing larval competency, metamorphic induction and juvenile growth through exploring natural and artificial metamorphic inducers and diets; (3) defining and staging morphologically the ontogeny of major larval and juvenile organ systems to include th nervous system and the role of its neurochemical transmitters by experimental manipulations and using toxic analogs; (4) selecting, establishing, and testing the genetic homogeneity of specific inbred strains of Hermissenda that are well-adapted to laboratory culture and display character traits (learning abilities) which will enhance this species use as a high connectivity model system in neurobiology.