Biomarkers for haemic neoplasia in the blue mussel, mytilus trossulus

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The overall objective of this research is to develop biomarkers for a leukemia-like disease in mussels called haemic neoplasia (HN). This disease has a high prevalence in Mytilus trossulus, the species native to the British Columbia coast. Although the disease likely has a virus aetiology there are some indications that susceptibility of individuals to the disease is exacerbated in the presence of pollutants. The mussel is used widely as a bioindicator organism, and is being evaluated as a potential monitoring tool for the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) receiving environment-monitoring program for one wastewater treatment plant. Haemic neoplasia is one of the various endpoints being evaluated. Our goal is to develop high throughput techniques such as gene expression analysis for monitoring of this disease. Our hypothesis is that apoptosis processes are impaired in leukemic mussel haemocytes (LMH). We propose to test this hypothesis by subjecting LMH to various apoptosis inducing agents. Knowing which pathways are dysregulated in LMH will help identify potential biomarkers for this disease. We are already monitoring the pro-apoptotic genes p53 and p63/p73 in a separate study. To extend the number of biomarker genes, and as a second objective of this proposal, we aim to sequence MDM2, an anti-apoptotic gene, and develop a quantitative polymerase chain reaction protocol so that MDM2 gene expression in LMH can be monitored also. Monitoring multiple biomarkers that include both protagonists and antagonists of a particular pathway gives more information about potential dysregulation of that pathway.