Kyoung C. Park

Immunological responses of turbot (Psetta maxima) to nodavirus infection or polyriboinosinic polyribocytidylic acid (pIC) stimulation, using expressed sequence tags (ESTs) analysis and cDNA microarrays.

To investigate the immunological responses of turbot to nodavirus infection or pIC stimulation, we constructed cDNA libraries from liver, kidney and gill tissues of nodavirus-infected fish and examined the differential gene expression within turbot kidney in response to nodavirus infection or pIC stimulation using a turbot cDNA microarray. Turbot were experimentally infected with nodavirus and samples of each tissue were collected at selected time points post-infection. Using equal amount of total RNA at each sampling time, we made three tissue-specific cDNA libraries. After sequencing 3230 clones we obtained 3173 (98.2%) high quality sequences from our liver, kidney and gill libraries. Of these 2568 (80.9%) were identified as known genes and 605 (19.1%) as unknown genes. A total of 768 unique genes were identified. The two largest groups resulting from the classification of ESTs according to function were the cell/organism defense genes (71 uni-genes) and apoptosis-related process (23 uni-genes). Using these clones, a 1920 element cDNA microarray was constructed and used to investigate the differential gene expression within turbot in response to experimental nodavirus infection or pIC stimulation. Kidney tissue was collected at selected times post-infection (HPI) or stimulation (HPS), and total RNA was isolated for microarray analysis. Of the 1920 genes studied on the microarray, we identified a total of 121 differentially expressed genes in the kidney: 94 genes from nodavirus-infected animals and 79 genes from those stimulated with pIC. Within the nodavirus-infected fish we observed the highest number of differentially expressed genes at 24 HPI. Our results indicate that certain genes in turbot have important roles in immune responses to nodavirus infection and dsRNA stimulation.

Simultaneous remediation of nutrients from liquid anaerobic digestate and municipal wastewater by the microalga Scenedesmus sp. AMDD grown in continuous chemostats

The primary aim of this study was to investigate the capacity of a microalga, Scenedesmus sp. AMDD, to remediate nutrients from municipal wastewater, either as the sole nutrient source or after blending with wastewater obtained from the anaerobic digestion of swine manure. A complimentary aim was to study and define the effects of these wastewaters on microalgal growth, biomass productivity and composition which have important implications for a commercial biofuels production system.

Seasonal isolation of microalgae from municipal wastewater for remediation and biofuel applications

The objective of the study was to isolate the microalgae strains from treated municipal wastewater in both summer and winter seasons in order to identify strains better suited for nutrient remediation and biofuel production under either cooler or warmer temperatures.