Sustainable food security through aquaculture: Establishment of algal technology for optimal aquaculture growth and health.

水产养殖为许多发展中国家提供了可持续的粮食安全。水产养殖疾病增加了成本，降低了产量。因此，开发具有成本效益的预防疾病的解决方案迫在眉睫。然而，这些技术还处于初级阶段。在该项目的第一阶段，将评估以藻类为单一物种和混合物种的微藻饲料饲养的双壳类模型软体动物的生长和性能。微藻将在改进后的环境中饲养，以自然影响生化表型和潜在营养价值的变化。这些藻类将作为食物来源进行对比实验，比较欧洲三个主要养殖双壳物种--欧洲平贝Ostrea edulis、太平洋牡蛎Magallana gias和蓝贻贝Mytilus edulis对生长、新陈代谢、生殖投资和免疫功能的影响。在第二阶段，该项目将考虑使用转基因微藻物种作为一种机制来干扰大牡蛎的牡蛎疱疹病毒(OsHV1)的复制周期，大牡蛎是欧洲养殖太平洋牡蛎的一种非外来病原体(Rogers等人，2019年)。使用既定的方法(Charoonnart等人，2019年)，我们将培养含有靶向关键牡蛎疱疹病毒病毒基因的dsRNA盒的转基因微藻。我们将探索这一平台作为基于饮食的RNAi传递平台的潜力，以防止英国养殖床上同居的太平洋牡蛎中的病毒复制。病毒复制将通过评估病毒诱导的组织病理学和病毒基因转录本的绝对定量聚合酶链式反应检测(Hauton等人，2007年)来量化。

Aquaculture offers sustainable food security to many developing countries. Aquaculture disease increases costs and decreases yields. The development of cost effective solutions to prevent disease is therefore pressing. Such technologies are however in their infancy. In stage 1 of this project the growth and performance of model bivalve molluscs reared on algal as single species and mixed species microalgal diets will be assessed. Microalgae will be reared in amended environments in order to naturally effect changes in the biochemical phenotype and potential nutritional value. These algae will be used as a food source in comparative experiments to compare the effects on growth, metabolism, reproductive investment, and immune function in European flat oysters Ostrea edulis, Pacific oysters Magallana gigas, and blue mussels Mytilus edulis; the three main cultured bivalve species in Europe. In a second phase, the project will consider the use of genetically modified microalgal species as a mechanism to interfere with the replication cycle of oyster herpes virus (OsHV1) of Magallana gigas, a non-exotic pathogen of cultured Pacific oysters in Europe (Rogers et al., 2019). Using established methodology (Charoonnart et al., 2019), we will culture genetically modified microalgae that contain a dsRNA cassette targeting a key oyster herpes virus viral gene. We will explore the potential of this as a diet based platform for the delivery of RNAi to prevent viral replication in cohabiting Pacific oysters in cultured beds in the UK. Viral replication will be quantified through assessments of viral induced histopathology and through absolute quantitative PCR detection (Hauton et al., 2007) of viral gene transcripts.