Figure 1.
Diff-quick®-stained haemolymph smears of O. australiensis from Port Philip Bay.
(A) Aggregation of Hematodinium sp. cells displaying a Hematodinium-typical nuclear appearance (black arrow) (B) O. australiensis haemocyte. Note the different appearance of the chromatin in comparison to the parasite cells. Scale-bar: 15 µm.
Figure 2.
DVNP IFAs of haemolymph parasite mixes.
The DNA is shown in red and anti-DVNP is shown in green. (A) Haemolymph smear of artificially infected sand crab O. australiensis showing two DVNP-positive cells (white arrowsheads) within a large number of haemocytes. (B) Haemolymph smear of artificially infected spider crabs L. gaimardii showing one DVNP-positive Hematodinium cell amongst haemocytes.
Figure 3.
DVNP IFAs of ethanol-fixed haemolymph samples obtained from heavily infected blue swimmer crabs Calinectes sapidus from Chesapeake Bay (USA).
DNA is shown in red and anti-DVNP is shown in green. (A1) IFA (left) and brightfield overlay (right) of a DVNP-negative C. sapidus hyalinocyte blood cell. (A2) IFA (left) and brightfield overlay (right) of a DVNP-negative C. sapidus granulocyte blood cell. (A3) IFA (left) and brightfield overlay (right) of a DVNP-positive Hematodinium cell. (B1) Hematodinium cells are strongly labeled around the edge of their nuclei while the DNA stain concentrates in the center of the nuclei. (B2) DVNP-labeling is absent in C. sapidus cells (red nuclei) and prominent in Hematodinium cells (green-yellow nuclei).
Figure 4.
DVNP IFAs of fixed haemolymph from PCR-positive L. gaimardii from Port Phillip Bay, Australia.
(A) Brightfield image (left) and IFA (right) of a DVNP-negative L. gaimardii haemocytes. (B) Brightfield image (left) and IFA (right) of a DVNP-positive Hematodinium cell. (C) IFA image of one DVNP-positive Hematodinium cell (white arrowhead) amongst L. gaimardii haemocytes.
Figure 5.
Western blot detection of DVNP in haemolymph-parasite mixes after target enrichment using acid extraction.
Samples containing 800, 500, 200, 100, 50, 25, 12.5, 5, 3 and 0 parasites ml-1 of haemolymph.