Dataset Information

Understanding marine larval dispersal in a broadcast-spawning invertebrate: A dispersal modelling approach for optimising spat collection of the Fijian black-lip pearl oyster Pinctada margaritifera.

ABSTRACT: Fisheries and aquaculture industries worldwide remain reliant on seed supply from wild populations, with their success and sustainability dependent on consistent larval recruitment. Larval dispersal and recruitment in the marine environment are complex processes, influenced by a multitude of physical and biological factors. Biophysical modelling has increasingly been used to investigate dispersal and recruitment dynamics, for optimising management of fisheries and aquaculture resources. In the Fiji Islands, culture of the black-lip pearl oyster (Pinctada margaritifera) is almost exclusively reliant on wild-caught juvenile oysters (spat), through a national spat collection programme. This study used a simple Lagrangian particle dispersal model to investigate current-driven larval dispersal patterns, identify potential larval settlement areas and compare simulated with physical spat-fall, to inform targeted spat collection efforts. Simulations successfully identified country-wide patterns of potential larval dispersal and settlement from 2012-2015, with east-west variations between bi-annual spawning peaks and circulation associated with El Niño Southern Oscillation. Localised regions of larval aggregation were also identified and compared to physical spat-fall recorded at 28 spat collector deployment locations. Significant and positive correlations at these sites across three separate spawning seasons (r(26) = 0.435; r(26) = 0.438; r(26) = 0.428 respectively, p = 0.02), suggest high utility of the model despite its simplicity, for informing future spat collector deployment. Simulation results will further optimise black-lip pearl oyster spat collection activity in Fiji by informing targeted collector deployments, while the model provides a versatile and highly informative toolset for the fishery management and aquaculture of other marine taxa with similar life histories.

SUBMITTER: Lal MM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7302709 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Understanding marine larval dispersal in a broadcast-spawning invertebrate: A dispersal modelling approach for optimising spat collection of the Fijian black-lip pearl oyster Pinctada margaritifera.

Lal Monal M MM Bosserelle Cyprien C Kishore Pranesh P Southgate Paul C PC

PloS one 20200618 6

Fisheries and aquaculture industries worldwide remain reliant on seed supply from wild populations, with their success and sustainability dependent on consistent larval recruitment. Larval dispersal and recruitment in the marine environment are complex processes, influenced by a multitude of physical and biological factors. Biophysical modelling has increasingly been used to investigate dispersal and recruitment dynamics, for optimising management of fisheries and aquaculture resources. In the F ...[more]

PMID: 32555587

Similar Datasets

Project description:Fishery management and conservation of marine species increasingly relies on genetic data to delineate biologically relevant stock boundaries. Unfortunately for high gene flow species which may display low, but statistically significant population structure, there is no clear consensus on the level of differentiation required to resolve distinct stocks. The use of fine-scale neutral and adaptive variation, considered together with environmental data can offer additional insights to this problem. Genome-wide genetic data (4,123 SNPs), together with an independent hydrodynamic particle dispersal model were used to inform farm and fishery management in the Fijian black-lip pearl oyster Pinctada margaritifera, where comprehensive fishery management is lacking, and the sustainability of exploitation uncertain. Weak fine-scale patterns of population structure were detected, indicative of broad-scale panmixia among wild oysters, while a hatchery-sourced farmed population exhibited a higher degree of genetic divergence (Fst = 0.0850-0.102). This hatchery-produced population had also experienced a bottleneck (NeLD = 5.1; 95% C.I. = [5.1-5.3]); compared to infinite NeLD estimates for all wild oysters. Simulation of larval transport pathways confirmed the existence of broad-scale mixture by surface ocean currents, correlating well with fine-scale patterns of population structuring. Fst outlier tests failed to detect large numbers of loci supportive of selection, with 2-5 directional outlier SNPs identified (average Fst = 0.116). The lack of biologically significant population genetic structure, absence of evidence for local adaptation and larval dispersal simulation, all indicate the existence of a single genetic stock of P. margaritifera in the Fiji Islands. This approach using independent genomic and oceanographic tools has allowed fundamental insights into stock structure in this species, with transferability to other highly-dispersive marine taxa for their conservation and management.

Project description:BackgroundColor polymorphism in the nacre of pteriomorphian bivalves is of great interest for the pearl culture industry. The nacreous layer of the Polynesian black-lipped pearl oyster Pinctada margaritifera exhibits a large array of color variation among individuals including reflections of blue, green, yellow and pink in all possible gradients. Although the heritability of nacre color variation patterns has been demonstrated by experimental crossing, little is known about the genes involved in these patterns. In this study, we identify a set of genes differentially expressed among extreme color phenotypes of P. margaritifera using a suppressive and subtractive hybridization (SSH) method comparing black phenotypes with full and half albino individuals.ResultsOut of the 358 and 346 expressed sequence tags (ESTs) obtained by conducting two SSH libraries respectively, the expression patterns of 37 genes were tested with a real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) approach by pooling five individuals of each phenotype. The expression of 11 genes was subsequently estimated for each individual in order to detect inter-individual variation. Our results suggest that the color of the nacre is partially under the influence of genes involved in the biomineralization of the calcitic layer. A few genes involved in the formation of the aragonite tablets of the nacre layer and in the biosynthesis chain of melanin also showed differential expression patterns. Finally, high variability in gene expression levels were observed within the black phenotypes.ConclusionsOur results revealed that three main genetic processes were involved in color polymorphisms: the biomineralization of the nacreous and calcitic layers and the synthesis of pigments such as melanin, suggesting that color polymorphism takes place at different levels in the shell structure. The high variability of gene expression found within black phenotypes suggests that the present work should serve as a basis for future studies exploring more thoroughly the expression patterns of candidate genes within black phenotypes with different dominant iridescent colors.

Project description:The genomics of economically important marine bivalves is studied to provide better understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying their different reproductive strategies. The recently available gonad transcriptome of the black-lip pearl oyster Pinctada margaritifera is a novel and powerful resource to study these mechanisms in marine mollusks displaying hermaphroditic features. In this study, RNAseq quantification data of the P. margaritifera gonad transcriptome were analyzed to identify candidate genes in histologically-characterized gonad samples to provide molecular signatures of the female and male sexual pathway in this pearl oyster. Based on the RNAseq data set, stringent expression analysis identified 1,937 contigs that were differentially expressed between the gonad histological categories. From the hierarchical clustering analysis, a new reproduction model is proposed, based on a dual histo-molecular analytical approach. Nine candidate genes were identified as markers of the sexual pathway: 7 for the female pathway and 2 for the male one. Their mRNA levels were assayed by real-time PCR on a new set of gonadic samples. A clustering method revealed four principal expression patterns based on the relative gene expression ratio. A multivariate regression tree realized on these new samples and validated on the previously analyzed RNAseq samples showed that the sexual pathway of P. margaritifera can be predicted by a 3-gene-pair expression ratio model of 4 different genes: pmarg-43476, pmarg-foxl2, pmarg-54338 and pmarg-fem1-like. This 3-gene-pair expression ratio model strongly suggests only the implication of pmarg-foxl2 and pmarg-fem1-like in the sex inversion of P. margaritifera. This work provides the first histo-molecular model of P. margaritifera reproduction and a gene expression signature of its sexual pathway discriminating the male and female pathways. These represent useful tools for understanding and studying sex inversion, sex differentiation and sex determinism in this species and other related species for aquaculture purposes such as genetic selection programs.

Project description:BACKGROUND:Black pearl farming is based on culture of the blacklip pearl oyster Pinctada margaritifera (Mollusca, lophotrochozoa), a protandrous hermaphrodite species. At first maturation, all individuals are males. The female sex appears progressively from two years old, which represents a limitation for broodstock conditioning for aquaculture production. In marine mollusks displaying hermaphroditic features, data on sexual determinism and differentiation, including the molecular sex determining cascade, are scarce. To increase genomic resources and identify the molecular mechanisms whereby gene expression may act in the sexual dimorphism of P. margaritifera, we performed gonad transcriptome analysis. RESULTS:The gonad transcriptome of P. margaritifera was sequenced from several gonadic samples of males and females at different development stages, using a Next-Generation-Sequencing method and RNAseq technology. After Illumina sequencing, assembly and annotation, we obtained 70,147 contigs of which 62.2% shared homologies with existing protein sequences, and 9% showed functional annotation with Gene Ontology terms. Differential expression analysis identified 1,993 differentially expressed contigs between the different categories of gonads. Clustering methods of samples revealed that the sex explained most of the variation in gonad gene expression. K-means clustering of differentially expressed contigs showed 815 and 574 contigs were more expressed in male and female gonads, respectively. The analysis of these contigs revealed the presence of known specific genes coding for proteins involved in sex determinism and/or differentiation, such as dmrt and fem-1 like for males, or foxl2 and vitellogenin for females. The specific gene expression profiles of pmarg-fem1-like, pmarg-dmrt and pmarg-foxl2 in different reproductive stages (undetermined, sexual inversion and regression) suggest that these three genes are potentially involved in the sperm-oocyte switch in P. margaritifera. CONCLUSIONS:The study provides a new transcriptomic tool to study reproduction in hermaphroditic marine mollusks. It identifies sex differentiation and potential sex determining genes in P. margaritifera, a protandrous hermaphrodite species.

Dataset Information

Understanding marine larval dispersal in a broadcast-spawning invertebrate: A dispersal modelling approach for optimising spat collection of the Fijian black-lip pearl oyster Pinctada margaritifera.

Publications

Understanding marine larval dispersal in a broadcast-spawning invertebrate: A dispersal modelling approach for optimising spat collection of the Fijian black-lip pearl oyster Pinctada margaritifera.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets