Health state of mollusc productive sites: Biochemical, physiologicaland molecular markers

One of the main priorities of the European Union political agenda concerns the tracking, management and control of fisheries resources. As most coastal zones, Venice Lagoon is subject to the deposit of sedimentological materials, in form of inorganic and organic detritus, nutrients and heavy metals, and there is also a very strong anthropic pressure; therefore, analysis and monitoring of production sites have a great importance in fisheries management and control. Aim of the present study is to identify and validate biochemical, physiological and molecular markers that could be utilized for assessing the state of health of productive sites, as well as to identify new ones. A multidisciplinary approach has been developed to define and characterize both the populations of bivalve mollusc growing up in some aquaculture lagoon sites and the best sites as well. Model organisms for the research are Tapes philippinarum and Tapes decussatus, two species of bivalve mollusc of the Veneridae family, which happens to have a great socio-economical importance: as a consequence, fishing and production sites have to be carefully controlled. The main focus of this study centers on inorganic pollution, specifically heavy metals bioaccumulation and storing in different tissues; the evaluation of metallothioneins induction has proved very helpful in determining the quality of old and new aquaculture sites; in addition, molecular markers have been used to look for a mollusc bivalve sub-population identification.