A rapid phenotype change in the pathogen Perkinsus marinus was associated with a historically significant marine disease emergence in the eastern oyster.

ABSTRACT: The protozoan parasite Perkinsus marinus, which causes dermo disease in Crassostrea virginica, is one of the most ecologically important and economically destructive marine pathogens. The rapid and persistent intensification of dermo in the USA in the 1980s has long been enigmatic. Attributed originally to the effects of multi-year drought, climatic factors fail to fully explain the geographic extent of dermo's intensification or the persistence of its intensified activity. Here we show that emergence of a unique, hypervirulent P. marinus phenotype was associated with the increase in prevalence and intensity of this disease and associated mortality. Retrospective histopathology of 8355 archival oysters from 1960 to 2018 spanning Chesapeake Bay, South Carolina, and New Jersey revealed that

SUBMITTER: Carnegie RB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8213716 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature