UMD Theses and Dissertations

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/3

New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a given thesis/dissertation in DRUM.

More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.

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    DEVELOPMENT, VALIDATION, AND APPLICATION OF A QUANTITATIVE POLYMERASE CHAIN REACTION ASSAY TO ASSESS HEMATODINIUM PEREZI PREVALENCE IN ENVIRONMENTAL SAMPLES
    (2012) Hanif, Ammar; Schott, Eric J; Jagus, Rosemary; Marine-Estuarine-Environmental Sciences; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Dinoflagellate parasites in the Hematodinium genus have emerged as important pathogens of economically important crustaceans worldwide, causing significant economic losses to fisheries and aquaculture. An understanding of the routes of infection in blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) populations would be facilitated by an improved knowledge of environmental reservoirs. A previously used PCR assay, based on small subunit rRNA sequences, lacked the specificity needed for Hematodinium perezi detection of environmental samples. Therefore a quantitative PCR assay based on the internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) region of H. perezi rRNA genes was developed, validated, and applied to examine temporal and spatial incidences of environmental reservoirs in Delmarva coastal bays. H. perezi was detected in sediment and water in several Delmarva coastal bays, as well as the host, C. sapidus. Results suggest the existence of localized sediment reservoirs in areas where hydrological and geophysical features allow for the formation of cell deposits.