Freshwater mussels are among the most endangered faunal groups in the world. In North Carolina, there are eight species either federally listed or proposed for listing under the Endangered Species Act. As such, propagation has become an important tool for mussel conservation in the state. Traditional propagation activities involve inoculating host fish with mussel larvae to take them through metamorphosis and to the next life stage in captivity. In vitro techniques bypass the mussel’s obligate fish host and allow for transformation in a petri dish or culture flask using modified cell culture techniques. This method has potential to be extremely effective, transforming a greater percentage of an adult mussel’s brood than does exposure to a host fish. Unfortunately, in vitro propagated mussels have often had less vigor and lower survivability compared to their in vivo counterparts. With the establishment of the Yates Mills Aquatic Conservation Center (YMACC), NC State University will be involved in mussel propagation research and production for conservation well into the future. We propose supplementing the traditional propagation at the YMACC with in vitro efforts to both boost overall production and conducting research to refine the technique to make this methodology more efficient. Our initial target species include Dwarf Wedgemussel, Tar River Spinymussel, Yellow Lance, and Atlantic Pigtoe. Proposed research tasks include evaluating different media recipes and serum types and characterizing the juvenile mussel gut microbiome to identify potential beneficial probiotics in early grow-out. A final task will coalesce our developing expertise to directly compare in vitro versus in vivo techniques to determine which is most efficient and effective for each of the target species.
