The role of the cytochrome B and cytochrome C oxidase III genes in the immune response of the South African abalone, Haliotis midae

• Main Author: Janse van Rensburg, Marike
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: University of Cape Town 2014
• Subjects: Cell Biology
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/4275

Includes abstract. === Includes bibliographical references (leaves 80-89). === Although South Africa is the second largest producer of abalone outside Asia, the sustainability of the industry could be threatened by infectious diseases (Troell et ai., 2006). Probiotics are increasingly being viewed as an alternative to chemical and antibiotic treatments (Balcazar et al., 2006), and have been shown to improve the health of the South African abalone, Haliotis midae (Macey and Coyne, 2005). In order to establish better health management systems, and to implement alternative therapies such as probiotics, a better understanding of how the abalone immune system functions, and specifically how it responds to stimulation, is necessary. Two genes of the electron transport system, cytochrome b and cytochrome c oxidase III, were found to be upregulated in a cDNA microarray experiment performed on haemocytes from immunestimulated abalone (Arendze-Bailey, unpublished). The current study sought to confirm these results by semi-quantitative PCR and to further elucidate the roles of these genes, and thus the electron transport system, in the abalone immune response.