Home
>
Communications
> Newsroom
> 2005
NEWSROOM
Sea
Grant Research Projects Receive Nearly $600,000 In GOIP Grants
March 28, 2005
Four Louisiana
Sea Grant College Program research projects have been awarded
$591,073 in Gulf Oyster Industry Program (GOIP) grants.
- LSU AgCenter
Assistant Professor Jerome La Peyre was awarded $192,126 for
a project titled “Increasing the Survival and Shelf Life
of Gulf Coast Oysters by Controlling Their Exposure to Air:
Potential Role of Stress Proteins.” La Peyre will study
the effect of air exposure on oyster survival during the growing
period and on oyster shelf life after harvest. Increasing the
survival rate of air-exposed oysters would have advantages in
growing market-sized oysters in shallow waters. Increasing live
oyster shelf life in late summer, when the shelf life is shortest,
would have positive distribution and marketing implications.
- La Peyre
also was awarded $151,329 for a project titled “Effects
of Freshwater Diversions: An Experimental Determination of the
Effects of Freshets on the Oyster Parasite Perkinsus marinus
and Its Host, Crassostrea virginica.” A freshet is a stream
of fresh water that empties into a body of salt water. Decreasing
sea water salinity is known to delay development of the P. marinus
infection. The goal of the project is to determine how various
controlled exposures to fresh water impact the intensity of
P. marinus infection in oysters.
- LSU AgCenter
Aquaculture Research Center Professor Terrence Tiersch was awarded
$153,080 for a project titled “Process Control Technology
for Spawning of Triploid Females to Produce Tetraploid Oysters.”
Typically, plants and animals have two sets of chromosomes (diploid).
Triploid refers to a genetic condition in which there are three
sets of chromosomes, and tetraploid organisms have four sets
of chromosomes. Triploid oysters are more marketable because
they grow faster, bigger and meatier than diploid oysters, but
triploids are less fertile and typically are spawned through
artifcial means. Tetraploid oysters, which are not marketed
for consumption, naturally spawn triploids which make them excellent
triploid broodstock. The project's goal is to develop a new
system to enhance triploid fertility in order to provide eggs
for tetraploid production in the Gulf of Mexico region. Co-investigators
on the project include Steven Hall, LSU AgCenter assistant professor
of biological and agricultural engineering, and John Supan,
Louisiana Sea Grant research professor.
- Marlene
Janes, LSU AgCenter assistant professor of food sciences, was
awarded $94, 538 for a project titled “Detection of Vibrio
vulnificus by Direct Colony Immunoblot.” Vibrio vulnificus
is a bacterium in the same family as those that cause cholera.
It can infect oysters and can cause disease in people who eat
contaminated seafood. The project's goal is to develop a simple,
inexpensive and rapid method for V. vulnificus detection in
raw oysters harvested from the Gulf of Mexico.
GOIP was created
in 1999 by the Gulf Oyster Council, a cross-section of Gulf oyster
industry leaders, state resource managers and academic researchers.
The goal of GIOP is to encourage multi-disciplinary research and
extension projects that contribute directly to the efficiency
and profitability of oyster-related businesses and to the safety
of oyster products.
Since its
establishment in 1968, Louisiana Sea Grant has worked to promote
stewardship of the state's coastal resources through a combination
of research, education and outreach programs critical to the cultural,
economic and environmental health of Louisiana's coastal zone.
Louisiana Sea Grant, based at Louisiana State University, is part
of the National Sea Grant Program, a network of 30 programs in
each of the U.S. coastal and Great Lakes states and Puerto Rico/U.S.
Virgin Islands.
<<
Back to 2005 News Page
|
