Browsing by Author "Brink-Hull, Marissa"

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    Assessing the potential of the unexploited South African Cape sea urchin, Parechinus angulosus, as a new aquaculture species
    (2025) Cloete, Aimee; Brink-Hull, Marissa; Macey, Brett M; Bolton, John J
    Sea urchins are harvested for their gonads, otherwise known as “uni”, that have a high market value, particularly in Asian countries such as Japan and China. Over the last few decades, the market for ‘uni' has steadily expanded. Current and future demand for sea urchin products cannot be met by the sea urchin fishery alone, presenting a commercial opportunity for unexploited sea urchin species with marketable gonad products. A symbiotic relationship exists in nature between the Cape urchin Parechinus angulosus and the early developmental stages of South Africa's most lucrative aquaculture product, the South African abalone Haliotis midae. Previous work has shown that supplementing hatchery-produced juvenile abalone with Cape sea urchin faecal matter benefits juvenile abalone growth and enhances survival.
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    Feed and Host Genetics Drive Microbiome Diversity with Resultant Consequences for Production Traits in Mass-Reared Black Soldier Fly (Hermetia illucens) Larvae
    (Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, 2021-12-01) Greenwood, Matthew P; Hull, Kelvin L; Brink-Hull, Marissa; Lloyd, Melissa; Rhode, Clint
    Mass rearing the black soldier fly, Hermetia illucens, for waste bioremediation and valorisation is gaining traction on a global scale. While the health and productivity of this species are underpinned by associations with microbial taxa, little is known about the factors that govern gut microbiome assembly, function, and contributions towards host phenotypic development in actively feeding larvae. In the present study, a 16S rDNA gene sequencing approach applied to a study system incorporating both feed substrate and genetic variation is used to address this knowledge gap. It is determined that the alpha diversity of larval gut bacterial communities is driven primarily by features of the larval feed substrate, including the diversity of exogenous bacterial populations. Microbiome beta diversity, however, demonstrated patterns of differentiation consistent with an influence of diet, larval genetic background, and a potential interaction between these factors. Moreover, evidence for an association between microbiome structure and the rate of larval fat accumulation was uncovered. Taxonomic enrichment analysis and clustering of putative functional gut profiles further suggested that feed-dependent turnover in microbiome communities is most likely to impact larval characteristics. Taken together, these findings indicate that host–microbiome interactions in this species are complex yet relevant to larval trait emergence.