Abstract

In the current method of pearl production, the mantle fragment of a donor pearl oyster is transplanted into a host pearl oyster together with an inorganic bead (pearl nucleus). After this surgical procedure, only outer epithelial cells (OEC) in the transplanted mantle survive in a host pearl oyster and form a pearl sac to begin pearl formation. Therefore, implantation of only the OEC instead of the mantle fragment would be a possible alternative to the current procedure. To examine the potential of pearl production by implanting OEC in Pinctada fucata, we developed a cell implantation method using the pearl nucleus carrying a small pit inoculated with OEC. As a result, approximately 70% of the inserted nuclei formed the nacreous layer when the OEC were inoculated at 5 × 104 cells/nucleus. Then, OEC isolated from two genetically different types of pearl oysters that significantly differed in shell nacre color (yellowness) were mixed at four different ratios, and the prepared OEC mixtures were transplanted to investigate the effects of the blend on the yellowness of pearls to be harvested. The yellowness of harvested pearls differed significantly in accordance with the mixing ratio. Similarly, OEC isolated from two types of pearl oysters that showed a significant difference in the thickness of their shell nacre aragonite tablets were mixed at four different ratios and transplanted. Mean thickness of the aragonite tablets of the harvested pearls differed according to mixing ratio. These results suggest the method to control pearl quality by blending OEC obtained from pearl oysters genetically improved by selective breeding for traits related to pearl quality.

Highlights

  • The method of pearl production using pearl oyster Pinctada fucata involves transplanting a small fragment of the mantle of a donor pearl oyster into a host pearl oyster together with a small shell bead called a pearl nucleus (Masaoka et al 2013)

  • To assess the possibility of these technical improvements in pearl production, we developed a method to produce pearls by implanting outer epithelial cells (OEC) and examined the effects of blending of OEC isolated from donor pearl oysters with different genetic backgrounds on the yellowness and interference color of pearls

  • Nacreous pearls could be produced by the implantation of OEC, and the inoculation of 5 × 104 cells/nucleus led to formation of aragonite layers in approximately 70% of the inserted nuclei (Awaji et al 2014)

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Summary

Introduction

The method of pearl production using pearl oyster Pinctada fucata involves transplanting a small fragment of the mantle of a donor pearl oyster into a host pearl oyster together with a small shell bead called a pearl nucleus (Masaoka et al 2013). Implantation of only OEC instead of the mantle fragment would be a possible alternative to the current pearl production procedure. Quality of a pearl is determined by various traits: size, color, luster, shape, and blemish (Jerry et al 2012; Atsumi et al 2014). Among these traits, color is mainly developed by the amount of yellow pigments and the interference color of pearl nacre. If we can produce pearls by implanting OEC, it might be possible to control yellowness or the interference color of pearls by blending the OEC isolated from donor pearl oysters with different genetic backgrounds regarding these traits

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