Meeting Abstract
76.4 Tuesday, Jan. 6 Rapid detection of invasive species in ballast water using molecular methods MAHON, A.R.*; SENAPATI, S.; FEDER, J.L.; CHANG, H-C.; LODGE, D.M.; Center for Aquatic Conservation, University of Notre Dame amahon@nd.edu
Invasive species have inflicted high levels of environmental and economic damage to the North American Great Lakes region. During recent decades, approximately 70% of Great Lakes invasives were introduced through transoceanic shipping. One vector for species introduction is ships ballast water. As treatment systems for ballast water are lacking, real-time monitoring of the biological contents of ballast tanks could inform decisions about ship movements and ballasting practices. We are currently developing a portable, real-time genetic probe for the detection of target invasive species in ships’ ballast. By combining modern molecular methods with microfluidic chip-based technologies, ballast samples can be rapidly screened for multiple target organisms, allowing informed decisions about the risk of invasions to be made en route. Target species for our work include the green crab (Carcinus maenas), the golden mussel (Limnoperna fortunei), the zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha), the quagga mussel (Dreissena bugensis) and the Chinese mitten crab (Eriocheir sinensis). These species, excluding the green crab, have either already invaded the Great Lakes watershed or are potentially threatening to the region. In our work, we asymmetrically amplify a fragment of cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) using species specific PCR primers for detection in our novel microfluidic chip-based system. We have also begun to analyze detection limits of the system and both artificial and real ballast samples for presence or absence of the target species. The results of our work show that we can rapidly and accurately detect target invasive species in samples of ships ballast. These data support the continued development of the portable real-time detection system that could be used on board a ship during transport, prior to discharging ballast.
