Collaborative Research: Host-Pathogen Interactions at Pallial Interfaces in Marine Bivalves: Cellular and Molecular Pathways for Host Colonization and Invasion

由于其环境影响和商业价值，双壳类软体动物是底栖动物群落中最重要的成员之一。传染病已造成双壳类动物（如东牡蛎）的严重死亡，导致生态系统健康发生重大变化。然而，对于大多数双壳类疾病，人们对病原体传播的动态知之甚少，包括诸如感染途径和机制或促进或抑制病原体进入其宿主的因素等基本信息。有趣的是，最近的研究表明，病原体（即牡蛎皮肤疾病的病原体Perkinsus marinus）可以破坏宿主的防御因子（如凝集素），进入牡蛎的血细胞并引发感染。这项合作将联合来自石溪大学和马里兰大学的专家的专业知识和设备，提供一种协同方法来确定感染因子如何劫持与白质组织（地幔，鳃）相关的宿主防御因子来启动东部牡蛎的感染。这些关于细胞和分子宿主-病原体相互作用的研究将解决长期存在的关于海洋微生物定植和入侵双壳类动物的机制的问题。迫切需要这一新信息，以便将未来的调查目标定位于减轻疾病的创新战略。除了牡蛎疾病的具体案例之外，这个项目将对科学家如何看待微生物与其海洋无脊椎宿主之间的初次相遇产生根本性的影响，并有可能导致新的研究方法的发展。从教育的角度来看，该项目的主要目标是对研究生、本科生和高中学生和教师，包括代表性不足的少数民族，进行海洋生物病理学和免疫学方面的多学科培训。研究和教育活动的产品将通过科学的电子和印刷媒体传播，包括研究生论文和课堂教学模块，以及贝类贸易杂志的出版物和面向利益攸关者和一般公众的情况介绍。

Bivalve mollusks are among the most important members of benthic communities for their environmental impacts and commercial value. Infectious diseases have caused severe mortalities in bivalves such as the Eastern oyster, leading to significant alterations of ecosystem health. For most bivalve diseases, however, little is known about the dynamics of pathogen transmission, including basic information such as the routes and the mechanisms of infection or the factors that facilitate or inhibit the entry of pathogens into their hosts. Interestingly, recent studies demonstrated that pathogens (namely Perkinsus marinus the causative agent of Dermo disease in oysters) can subvert host defense factors (e.g. galectin) to gain entry in oyster blood cells and initiate infections. This collaborative effort will unite the expertise and facilities of specialists from Stony Brook University and the University of Maryland, providing a synergistic approach to determine how infectious agents hijack host defense factors associated with pallial tissues (mantle, gills) to initiate infections in the Eastern oyster. These studies on cellular and molecular host-pathogen interactions will address long-standing questions regarding mechanism(s) by which marine microbes colonize and invade bivalves. This new information is urgently needed to target future investigations to innovative strategies for disease mitigation. Beyond the specific case of oyster diseases, this project would have a fundamental impact on how scientists view initial encounters between microbes and their marine invertebrate hosts, and has the potential to lead to the development of new research approaches. From the educational standpoint, a primary objective of this project is the multidisciplinary training of graduate, undergraduate, and high school students and teachers, including underrepresented minorities, in the pathology and immunology of marine organisms. The products from research and educational activities will be disseminated by scientific electronic and printed media, including graduate dissertations and teaching modules for the classroom, as well as publications in shellfish trade magazines and fact sheets directed at stakeholders and the general public.