Effects of temperature on hard clam (Mercenaria mercenaria) immunity and QPX (Quahog Parasite Unknown) disease development: II. Defense parameters

Quahog Parasite Unknown (QPX) is a protistan parasite affecting hard clams Mercenaria mercenaria along the Northeastern coast of the United States. The geographic distribution and occurrence of disease epizootics suggests a primary role of temperature in disease development. This study was designed to investigate the effect of temperature on constitutive and QPX-induced defense factors in M. mercenaria. Control and QPX-challenged (both experimentally and naturally) clams were maintained at 13, 21 and 27 °C for 4 months. Control and experimentally-infected clams originated from a southern broodstock (Florida, no prior reports of disease outbreak) while naturally-infected clams originated from a northern broodstock (Massachusetts, enzootic area). Standard and QPX-specific cellular and humoral defense parameters were assessed after 2 and 4 months. Measured parameters included total and differential hemocyte counts, reactive oxygen species production, phagocytic activity of hemocytes, lysozyme concentration in plasma, anti-QPX activity in plasma and resistance of hemocytes to cytotoxic QPX extracellular products. Results demonstrated a strong influence of temperature on constitutive clam defense factors with significant modulation of cellular and humoral parameters of control clams maintained at 13 °C compared to 21 and 27 °C. Similarly, clam response to QPX challenge was also affected by temperature. Challenged clams exhibited no difference from controls at 27 °C whereas different responses were observed at 21 °C and 13 °C compared to controls. Despite differences in infection mode (experimentally or naturally infected) and clam origin (northern and southern broodstocks), similarities were observed at 13 °C and 21 °C between QPX infected clams from Florida and Massachusetts. Clam response to temperature and to QPX exhibited interesting relationship with QPX disease development highlighting major influence of temperature on disease development.