Image by Peter Yeung for Mongabay.The reef she speaks of is new, one of several her team fashioned from the old posts in the mudflats off Pak Nai, a historic hamlet along Deep Bay in Hong Kong’s northern New Territories region. These diverse habitats provide homes for fish and other marine life. Their creation has opened up space for horseshoe crabs, an endangered species dating back 475 million years. They stabilize shorelines in a way that both mitigates coastal erosion and allows seagrass to lay root.

Image by Peter Yeung for Mongabay.Family-run oyster farms are declining in Hong Kong as corporate operations dominate and young generations seek better-paid work. At the same time, the onset of climate change is impacting wild and farmed oysters alike. Rising sea temperatures slow oysters’ growth rate; acidification of marine waters interferes with their shell formation; and toxic algae blooms lead to mass deaths. The Hong Kong oyster , is a species of true oyster found in Hong Kong and the mouth of Pearl River in China. The species was uniquely identified by comparing the genetic distances of mitochondrial DNA sequences.

Restoring Hong Kong’s oyster reefs, one abandoned oyster farm at a time

Statistics cover outbreaks related to food premises and businesses that were reported to the Centre for Food Safety of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department in 2021. The best dried oysters are plump ones from Japan and Korea. Continued community engagement will be key, especially as development proceeds along the coast. In Pak Nai, the project, part of a habitat management plan that includes restoring the area’s mangroves and seagrass, has the firm backing of the village chief, who is working closely with the conservationists.

This pattern is similar across all three true oyster species, with patterns in TE activity primarily driven by the proliferation of DNA elements, including rolling-circle elements . The genome size of the Hong Kong oyster (~ 758 Mb) is similar to that of the Sydney rock oyster (~ 788 Mb), but the Pacific oyster has a considerably smaller genome (~ 565 Mb). Both the Sydney rock oyster and Hong Kong oyster have a repeat content of ~ 311 Mb, while the Pacific oyster has a repeat content of just 217 Mb (Fig.1, Supplementary information S2). Thus, repeats appear to have played a role in the expansion of genome size in the Hong Kong oyster and Syndney rock oyster.

Menu

However, there appears to have been a corresponding non-repeat contribution to the increase in genome size also, since the non-repeat proportion of the genome remains relatively constant across all three genomes (58.9–61.6%). If you want to expand on your limited knowledge of oysters, a live chef cooking station is at the ready to give you professional advice on oyster tasting. An open view of Victora Harbour from its 18th floor in the Sheraton tower adds to the overall seafood brunch experience.

Collectively, the observed patterns suggest that true oyster genomes have been strongly influenced by the activity of TEs, and particularly by DNA transposons. As more true oyster genomes become available, detailed analyses of the processes driving these patterns will become possible, and the Ostreidae represents a promising group for the study of host-transposon interactions, and especially DNA elements. Wet storage of raw oysters, including mixing and putting oysters of different origins in the same tank, was identified in a number of outbreaks. Wet storage is the storing live shellfish temporarily by submerging the under water or spraying them with water and the practice is not advised by authorities in other countries after oysters have been packed. This much-loved seafood joint serves British classics in elegant yet laidback surrounds. Aside from smoked fish and hearty pies, look out for the impressive selection of jet-fresh oysters served over ice.

However, for Pinctada fucata, Bathymodiolus platifrons, Mizuhopecten yessoensis and Marisa cornuarietis the three ParaHox genes are still relatively closely linked, but often with one or more intervening non-homeobox gene (Fig.4,5). This implies that functional constraints that keep this cluster intact in animals like chordates are not operating in most, and maybe all, of the sampled mollusc lineages. This may be a distinctive feature of molluscs, since dispersal of the ParaHox genes would be expected to be more extensive if the loss of clustering constraints was more ancient. It will be interesting to see what impact, if any, these rearrangements have had on the regulation and expression of mollusc ParaHox genes in future work. Retroelements make up a much smaller proportion of the genome (5.06–7.46%), with SINEs particularly poorly represented in oyster genomes (0.04–0.14%) (Table2, Fig.3a). 生蠔直送 is found on intertidal and subtidal rocks, and oyster farms along Deep Bay (‘Hau Hoi Wan’ in Cantonese) .

In animals, some homeobox genes are clustered together in the genome, either as remnants from ancestral genomic arrangements, or due to coordinated gene regulation. Consequently, analyses of homeobox gene organization across animal phylogeny provide important insights into the evolution of genome organization and developmental gene control, and their interaction. However, homeobox gene organization remains to be fully elucidated in several key animal ancestors, including those of molluscs, lophotrochozoans and bilaterians.