3 new publications related to VIVALDI

Spanish and Italian researchers involved in VIVALDI have recently published 3 articles emphasising some key scientific results obtained thanks to our project.

Manuscript: Bivalve transcriptomics reveal pathogen sequences and a powerful immune response of the Mediterranean mussel (Mytilus galloprovincialis) (Rebeca Moreira, Pablo Balseiro, Gabriel Forn-Cuní, Massimo Milan, Luca Bargelloni, Beatriz Novoa, Antonio Figueras)

Published in Marine Biology, 2018, doi: 10.1007/s00227-018-3308-0

VIVALDI partner involved: CSIC, UNIPD

The knowledge of the genomes and transcriptomes in bivalves has increased in the last years. All this information is very valuable and allows the study of important problems in the aquaculture industry (such as infectious diseases) from a molecular point of view. In this work we performed a comparative analysis among four aquacultured species: the blue and Mediterranean mussels, and the carpet shell and the Manila clams. We found that the Mediterranean mussel is the most robust species due to the high expression and variability of immune-related genes.

Manuscript: Revealing Mytilus galloprovincialis transcriptomic profiles during ontogeny (Rebeca Moreira, Patricia Pereiro, Pablo Balseiro, Massimo Milan, Marianna Pauletto, Luca Bargelloni, Beatriz Novoa, Antonio Figueras)

Published in Developmental and Comparative Immunology, 2018, doi: 10.1016/j.dci.2018.01.016

VIVALDI partner involved: CSIC and UNIPD

One of the reasons for the biological success of mussels is their reproduction strategy. Larval development in bivalves has been a topic of raising interest in the scientific community but it deserves much more attention. In this work we studied the gene expression profile of the larval development of the Mediterranean mussel, from oocytes to juveniles. We were able to find the most important genes in each developmental stage and the point in which the juveniles start to behave as adult mussels. Other interesting finding of this work is that the genes expressed in the mother oocytes are very important for the survival of the larvae.

Manuscript: High individual variability in the transcriptomic response of Mediterranean mussels to Vibrio reveals the involvement of myticins in tissue injury. (Magalí Rey-Campos, Rebeca Moreira, Valentina Valenzuela-Muñoz, Cristian Gallardo-Escárate, Beatriz Novoa, Antonio Figueras)

Published in Scientific Reports, 2019 DOI: 1038/s41598-019-39870-3.

VIVALDI partner involved: CSIC

The usual way to do experiments is to analyze a group of individual animals altogether. In this work, we analyzed the individual response of mussels before and after being infected with a very common pathogenic bacterium in aquaculture: Vibrio splendidus. We demonstrated a great variability in the defense response among individual mussels. Each animal showed an exclusive repertoire of genes not shared with other individuals. We also found that a simple injection without bacteria was a stimulus strong enough to mobilize immune cells. It suggests a reaction against a tissue injury and the specific involvement antimicrobial peptides to this danger signal.