URI_Research_Magazine_Momentum_Spring_2018_Melissa-McCarthy

Understanding the Challenges of Breeding Oysters written by Allison Farrelly ‘16

People can’t seem to get enough oysters, whether on the half shell or in stuffing, stewed, fried, or barbecued. And, farms are happy to keep up with demand. One key challenge, though, is disease. In Rhode Island, oyster populations can succumb to any of five diseases. In some cases, an infection can almost wipe out a farm’s entire supply. In an effort to better understand what makes oysters

resistant to disease, Marta Gomez-Chiarri, University of Rhode Island (URI) professor and department chair of fisheries, animal and veterinary science, managed a project sequencing the Eastern oyster genome, one of the few genomes available for the many tasty species from our oceans that have two shells. Gomez-Chiarri studies infectious disease in marine organisms and how to combat them. “There are a lot of things you have to pull together to

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