Charlotte Corporeau1,2, Danielle Mello1,2, Sébastien Petton1,2
1Ifremer, France - 2UMR LEMAR 6539 CNRS-UBO-IRD-Ifremer, France
The pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas living in the intertidal zone and is widely distributed and face a great number of different conditions during it’s lifetime. In the tidal area, its environment changes drastically from marine to aerial, with large variations in terms of temperature, pH, oxygen and nutrients availability. In our study, juveniles oysters were deployed in the field at three bathymetric levels in the bay of Brest, a location with a large prevalence of then marine virus OsHV-1 that induce mortalities, during three months. The environmental factors in the local environment of oysters were followed at each bathymetric level using instrumental sensors. The physiological performances of oysters were analysed, revealing a low growth but an extended survival rate at the upper level, despite a similar virus load than moribond oysters at the low level. By combining molecular, biochemical and cellular analysis, we proved that immunity and metabolism was boosted at a high bathymetric level, when oysters adapt to environmental multi-stress. C. gigas is thus a key species to identify mechanisms of adaptation to environmental changes in marine invertebrates.
Biography
My research activities aim to identify the mechanisms of physiological adaptation to environmental stress and the mechanisms that are deregulated during pathologies (metabolic diseases, viral and bacterial infections). My aim is to understand the impact of climate change and anthropization on animal health and disease in marine invertebrates, the sentinel species of the coastal environment.