Meeting Abstract
In the abalone and Rickettsiales-like organism (RLO) system, the RLO infects abalone digestive tissues and leads to extreme starvation and a characteristic “withering” of the gastropod foot. First identified in black abalone in California after an El Niño event, the withering syndrome-causing RLO (WS-RLO) has been seen in various sites around the world, and has been found in at least low levels in all abalone species examined. Some abalone species appear to be highly resistant to the disease, unless held at extremely high temperatures. This suggests that the resistant species possess some physiological resistance to the effects of high temperature. Our goal is to develop a detailed understanding of the abalone digestive system and the mechanisms for differential resistance across the Haliotis (abalone) genus. We examined baseline differences in gene expression in pinto abalone (Haliotis kamtschatkana) between infected and uninfected individuals. Pinto abalone were infected with the WS-RLO and sampled over 7 months. We used RNAseq to identify the genes being differentially expressed between the two groups. Gene expression differences between infected and uninfected animals will be compared and unique genes between naïve and infected abalone will be compared using heat maps generated in R. Statistical analysis will distinguish genes showing differential expression responses between species. With this data, we are identifying gene expression patterns in abalone digestive tracts that lead to WS expression during RLO infection.
