New paper out!

Our experimental set up, not super high tech but these tupperware were the perfect size for our oysters!

New paper out in the journal Parasitology on the release of the parasite Perkinsus marinus from infected oysters. https://bit.ly/3irKlqW

Perkinsus marinus is a parasite that causes dermo disease in east coast oysters. Dermo is worse in the summer months and can wipe out whole ecosystems, but we still don’t fully understand why there is more dermo in the summer.

My amazing intern Matilda Newcomb first found that live oysters released more perkinsus cells during the afternoon (the hottest and brightest part of the day). While seasonal variation in Perkinsus abundance is well documented, this was the first time daily variation has been explored.

We then did follow up experiments and found that oysters placed in hotter water for 6 hours released more perkinsus than oysters in ambient water. Sometimes this meant that live oysters released as many parasite cells as a dead oyster, but over much longer periods of time. Our findings have huge implications for both our understanding of seasonal and daily cycles of Perkinsus and also predicting disease dynamics in the future—as water warms will oysters start spewing out significantly more parasites?

Tillie after staying up for 24 hours sampling oysters!