Didemnum vexillum, D-Dock Charleston, OR 6/29/2010\ · 2019-12-31 · Urochordates are the only animals that produce cellulose, a polysaccharide existing primarily in the extracellular
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What animal has the earliest known spinal cord and produces celluose?
Acknowledgements to Lorne Curran, REEF, Bruce Hansen, USDA Forest Service Rick Boatner, Oregon Dept. of Fish and Wildlife, Glenn Dolphin, Oregon State Marine
Note the small six sided star shaped incurrent siphons that the tunicate uses
to filter feed and pass water in
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Didemnum vexillum on a the rocks of the inner north jetty of the Winchester Bay Triangle. Actual size of the image presents about a square inch or two. Note the small six sided star shaped incurrent siphons that the tunicate uses to filter feed and pass water in. The large openings are the excurrent siphon. Each large siphon represents an individual tunicate. What you see is a colony. Courtesy Lorne Curran.
Urochordates are the only animals that produce cellulose, a polysaccharide existing primarily in the extracellular matrices of plant, algal, and bacterial cells. Cellulose is the structural component of the primary cell wall of green plants, many forms of algae and the oomycetes. Some species of bacteria secrete it to form biofilms. Cellulose is the most common organic compound on Earth. About 33% of all plant matter is cellulose (the cellulose content of cotton is 90% and that of wood is 40–50%).[4][5] Chordates (phylum Chordata) are animals which are either vertebrates or one of several closely related invertebrates. They are united by having, for at least some period of their life cycle, a notochord, a hollow dorsal nerve cord, pharyngeal slits, an endostyle, and a post-anal tail. The phylum Chordata consists of three subphyla: Urochordata, represented by tunicates; Most tunicates appear as adults in two major forms, both of which are bags of jelly that lack the standard features of chordates: "sea squirts" are sessile and consist mainly of water pumps and filter-feeding apparatus;[13] salps float in mid-water, feeding on plankton, and have a two-generation cycle in which one generation is solitary and the next forms chain-like colonies.[14] However all tunicate larvae have the standard chordate features, including long, tadpole-like tails; they also have rudimentary brains, light sensors and tilt sensors.[13] The third main group of tunicates, Appendicularia (also known as Larvacea) retain tadpole-like shapes and active swimming all their lives, and were for a long time regarded as larvae of sea squirts or salps.[15] Because of their larvae's long tails tunicates are also called urochordates ("tail chordates").[13 Tunicate blood is particularly interesting. It contains high concentrations of the transition metal vanadium and vanadium-associated proteins as well as higher than usual levels of lithium. Some tunicates can concentrate vanadium up to a level one million times that of the surrounding seawater. Specialized cells can concentrate heavy metals, which are then deposited in the tunic. Vanadium has long been recognized as an essential element in biological systems; however, the role of the metal often is obscure. Tunicates accumulate vanadium to levels 1 million times greater than the surrounding seawater. This vanadium was once thought to act as an oxygen carrier but now is believed to be an oxidation catalyst that repairs damage to the polymeric, protective tunic of these animals. The first vanadium-dependent enzyme, vanadium bromoperoxidase, was isolated from brown, red, and green marine algae (for example, Ascophyllum nodosum); this enzyme catalyzes the bromination of a variety of organic molecules by using hydrogen peroxide and bromide. This activity may be the source of many important brominated compounds that potentially may be used as antifungal and antineoplastic agents. See also Enzyme. �In the May 2007 issue of The FASEB Journal, researchers from Stanford University showed that tunicates can correct abnormalities over a series of generations, and they suggest that a similar regenerative process may be possible for humans. The mechanisms underlying the phenomenon may lead to insights about the potential of cells and tissues to be reprogrammed and regenerate compromised human organs. Gerald Weissman, editor-in-chief of the journal, said "This study is a landmark in regenerative medicine; the Stanford group has accomplished the biological equivalent of turning a sow's ear into a silk purse and back again.“ Tunicates are more closely related to craniates (including hagfish, lampreys, and jawed vertebrates) than to lancelets, echinoderms, hemichordates, Xenoturbella or other invertebrates. The clade comprising Tunicates and Vertebrates is called Olfactores. �
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Didemnin B (natural product) Molecular Weight: 1112.35 g/mol Molecular Formula: C57H89N7O15 Source: Tunicate Trididemnum solidum (UROCHORDATA) Activity: Anti-cancer agent via protein synthesis inhibition
Didemnin B (DB) is a 7-amino-acid, cyclic polypeptide with potent (10-7-10-10M) antiproliferative effects in vivo and in vitro against a variety of viruses , Didemnin B is a branched cyclic peptolide with anti-tumour, antiviral, and immunosuppressive effects.1, 2 Didemnin B has been shown to rapidly induce ... Didemnin B was originally isolated from the Caribbean tunicate Trididemnum solidum and first reported in the literature in 1981. Early investigation into the bioactivity of this compound revealed marked antiviral and cytotoxic activity in in vitro tests using standard mouse leukemia cell lines. ��Mechanistically, Didemnin B interrupts protein synthesis in target cells by binding non-competitively to palmitoyl protein thioesterase. ��Didemnin B was the first defined marine natural product to enter clinical trials as a potential anti-cancer drug. It proceeded through Phase I clinical trials as a prospective anticancer agent and entered into Phase II trials. Although the compound showed promising antitumor, antiviral and immunosuppressive activity, it also exhibited high toxicity, poor solubility, and a short bioactive lifespan. NCI withdrew the drug from clinical trials in the mid-1990s. ��Aplidine (Dehydrodidemnin B), a closely related natural product isolated from a different tunicate species, is currently in clinical trials as a potential anti-cancer drug. ��Although Didemnin B was never carried into Phase III trials, activity focused on developing the compound as a potential cancer treatment helped pave the way for the rest of the marine-derived products following it into the development pipeline�
D. D. Vexillum Discovery 2010
June 2010 Sitka, AL
Feb 2010, Winchester Bay, OR
April 2010, Charleston, OR
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Presentation Notes
Didemnum vexilum distribution in the USA as of March 2010. The Oregon population in Winchester Bay was discovered in Feb. 2010. A second population found in Charleston Coos Bay on April 16. Courtesy USGS (public domain)
Winchester Bay/Salmon Harbor- Reedsport, Oregon USA Southern Oregon Coast
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Winchester Bay Oregon. Note the “Triangle” jetty at the entrance to the bay where Didemnum was found
The Umpqua Triangle w/Oyster Farm D. vexillum first ID in Oregon 2010
D. vexillum first found on jetty by REEF volunteer diver 2/2010
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Presentation Notes
Pie shaped wedge of the “Triangle in Winchester Bay. Tunicates are found on the middle of the inside wall of the north jetty. Credit Google maps. Type in Winchester Bay, Oregon, Satellite image
How does one work with shellfish growers to be a partner in early detection and rapid response to the discovery of an invasive species
in their operations?
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First discovered within “The Triangle” of Winchester Bay by Lorne Curran
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Northern featherduster worms being overgrown by Didemnum vexillum on a shellfish aquaculture mooring line in the triangle of Winchester Bay. Courtesy Lorne Curran
Charleston Boat Basin, Coos Bay
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Didemnum infested tires discovered at the Charleston Boat Basin by OIMB’s Richard Emlet in April 2010. Scott Groth, ODFW.
How did Didemnum get here? Ships and Boats?
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The Umpqua River entrance was last dredged in 2004, said John Craig, project manager in the Corps' Coos Bay field office. Since that time, 60,000 cubic yards of material have washed into the area, creating the need for dredging at this time. The Yaquina dredge will pull 40,000 yards of material off the shoal, which has built up in the channel, 1,500 feet west of the end of both jetties. Depth in that area will drop to 28 feet, two feet deeper than required, the
Expert survey on the importance of vectors to t that spread the tunicate D. vexillum
Potential vectors Vector importance Numerical vector risk ± standard deviation
Ballast water release Low 2·28 ± 0·92 Hull fouling large vessels (> 50 m) Moderate 3·44 ± 0·85
Hull fouling small vessels (< 50 m) High 3·57 ± 1·07
Hull fouling slow moving vessels High 4·39 ± 0·69
Aquaculture transfers High 4·18 ± 0·77 Commercial fishing High 3·59 ± 0·95 Aquarium releases Very low 1·44 ± 0·65 Intentional releases to establish a food source Very low 1·12 ± 0·43
Herborg et al 2008
New NOAA Pacific Fleet Headquarters and Discovery of Hull fouling on Construction Barge in Yaquina Bay leads to AIS Prevention
Protcols
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Presentation Notes
Report from John and Lorne. Beginning on the north side of the barge, they swam the perimeter observing invasive sponge and macro-algae growing well in the sunlight with native YOY rockfish sheltering in the habitat. Ducking under two thirds of the way out, the divers found the fouling community on the underside of the barge dominated by what they thought to be hydroids gowing on and among many Molgula. Invasive sponge and mussels were prominent but lesser in number.��Molgula grew some dozen in each clump with many individuals scattered closely by. With smaller ones also apparent, the larger specimens ranged from 14 mm to 24 mm measured transversely. The divers saw the tunicate everywhere they checked under the barge. Despite Molgula being common in Coos Bay to the south, this represents the first sighting in Yaquina Bay in five underwater surveys and several above water marina inspections.��What appears to be pilings, the "spuds" were clean, not surprising as the spud barge lowers these from the hull to moor itself.�
NOAA Pacific Fleet Headquarters and Discovery of Hull fouling on Construction Barge in Yaquina Bay leads to AIS Prevention Protocols
Hull fouling of “Spud” Barge in Yaquina Bay
Charleston, Oregon. Marina
Wrapping docks and relocating to freshwater are very effective eradication treatments
Presenter
Presentation Notes
The apparent cause of death of the fouling organisms was different for the two methods. Wrapped docks had no water exchange to the organisms attached to the floating docks and the entrapped water became suboxic, smelled strongly of hydrogen sulfide by week 1 and was essentially anoxic by week 3 (Table 3). pH was also lower inside the tarp than outside the tarp on week 3 (7.0 vs. 8.0) while salinity was only slightly lower inside the tarp compared to outside (Table 3). In contrast the riverine dock experienced very low or no salinity (Table 3), but oxygen was readily available and pH was 8.0 to 8.8 on week 3. We infer that low or no oxygen caused death on the wrapped docks whereas low or no salinity caused death on the riverine dock
State of Tunicates
• Invasive tunicates are a threat to marine infrastructure, ecology, and the economy of coastal communities.
• They spread rapidly and are easily transported by vectors such as boating, aquaculture activities and associated equipment and as hitchhikers on the hulls of boats and ships.
• Since 1970, a new invading tunicate species has been reported about every 5-6 years in Atlantic or Gulf waters and every 3-4 years on the Pacific Coast.
• Current management approaches are uncoordinated and ad hoc. Strong connectivity between coastal estuaries is maintained by ocean currents, shipping, and boating activities, which links geographies and necessitates a regional collaborative management strategy.
