Serum amyloid A in marine bivalves: An acute phase and innate immunity protein.

Serum amyloid A (SAA) is among the most potent acute phase proteins (APP) in vertebrates. After injury, its early expression can dramatically increase to promote the recruitment of immuno-competent cells, expression of pro-inflammatory proteins and the activation of the innate immune defences. Although APP have been studied in many vertebrates, only recently their search was extended to invertebrates and the finding of SAA-like molecules has opened new questions on the immune-regulatory functions of these soluble proteins in the animal kingdom. Taking advantage of the considerable amount of genomic and transcriptomic data currently available, we retrieved 51 SAA-like proteins in several protostome taxa comprising 21 marine bivalve species and basal metazoans. In addition to vertebrate-like SAAs, we identified a second protein type with peculiar features. In the bivalves Crassostrea gigas and Mytilus galloprovincialis, both digital expression analysis and qPCR data indicated an induction of the classical SAA after bacterial challenge.

Dual analysis of host and pathogen transcriptomes in ostreid herpesvirus 1-positive Crassostrea gigas.

Ostreid herpesvirus type 1 (OsHV-1) has become a problematic infective agent for the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas. In particular, the OsHV-1 µVar subtype has been associated with severe mortality episodes in oyster spat and juvenile oysters in France and other regions of the world. Factors enhancing the infectivity of the virus and its interactions with susceptible and resistant bivalve hosts are still to be understood, and only few studies have explored the expression of oyster or viral genes during productive infections. In this work, we have performed a dual RNA sequencing analysis on an oyster sample with a high viral load. High sequence coverage allowed us to thoroughly explore the OsHV-1 transcriptome and identify the activated molecular pathways in C. gigas. The identification of several highly induced and defence-related oyster transcripts supports the crucial role played by the innate immune system against the virus and opportunistic microbes possibly contributing to subsequent spat mortality.

International round-robin study on the Ames fluctuation test.

An international round-robin study on the Ames fluctuation test [ISO 11350, 2012], a microplate version of the classic plate-incorporation method for the detection of mutagenicity in water, wastewater and chemicals was performed by 18 laboratories from seven countries. Such a round-robin study is a precondition for both the finalization of the ISO standardization process and a possible regulatory implementation in water legislation. The laboratories tested four water samples (spiked/nonspiked) and two chemical mixtures with and without supplementation of a S9-mix. Validity criteria (acceptable spontaneous and positive control-induced mutation counts) were fulfilled by 92-100%, depending on the test conditions. A two-step method for statistical evaluation of the test results is proposed and assessed in terms of specificity and sensitivity. The data were first subjected to powerful analysis of variance (ANOVA) after an arcsine-square-root transformation to detect significant differences between the test samples and the negative control (NC). A threshold (TH) value based on a pooled NC was then calculated to exclude false positive test results. Statistically, positive effects observed by the William's test were considered negative, if the mean of all replicates of a sample did not exceed the calculated TH. By making use of this approach, the overall test sensitivity was 100%, and the test specificity ranged from 80 to 100%.