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R/DIS-01
Immunological Approaches to Understanding QPX Disease
Principal Investigator:
Robert S. AndersonStart/End Year:
2003 - 2006Institution:
Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, University of Maryland Center for Environmental ScienceTopic(s):
- Fisheries
Description:
QPX is an emerging disease affecting cultured M. mercenaria from Atlantic Canada to Virginia. A suite of quantitative immunoassays will be carried out in order to understand the basis of the clams' susceptibility to this protistan parasite. Parameters of host defense such as pathogen recognition, inhibition of replication, and killing of QPX organisms by circulating blood cells and serum molecules will be measured.
Funding Start Year
2003
Funding End Year
2006
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Featured Fellow
Nina Santos
Nina Santos is a Ph.D. student at the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. For her dissertation, she is focused on small shrimp-like crustaceans called mysids – an understudied yet important part of many estuarine and coastal food webs.
Featured Research Project
Developing a habitat model for mysids, an important link in Chesapeake Bay food webs
Mysids are important mesozooplankton prey for many species of fish in Chesapeake Bay and are an important link in transferring energy from lower to upper trophic levels. Mysids also serve as biological vectors for benthic-pelagic coupling due to their diel vertical migration and omnivorous prey-switching behavior, which makes mysids important regulators of food web architecture. Despite their central role in coastal food webs, surprisingly little is known about mysid ecology and dynamics in Chesapeake Bay.
