Faculty Projects and Publications

Teresa D. Lewis

Assistant Researcher

Office: (808) 236-7455
Lab: (808) 236-7493
Fax: (808) 236-7443
Email: tdlewis@hawaii.edu
Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology
PO Box 1346
Kane‘ohe, HI 96744

Education

Ph.D. 2000, Marine Science, College of William & Mary / Virginia Institute of Marine Biology
B.S. 1995, Zoology, Christopher Newport University

Research Interests

The focus of my research is aquatic animal health, with projects that are designed to better understand immune mechanisms and disease responses in aquatic organisms.
Using techniques originally developed for biomedical research we are attempting to develop better disease diagnostics and treatments to improve culture conditions for a variety of Hawaiian fish species, to include the Hawaiian pink snapper, opakapaka, and Pacific threadfin, moi. These diagnostics include immunoreagents specific for local species as well as cell lines that may be used for viral diagnostics. In addition to promoting the development of aquaculture through better characterization of fish immune responses, we are working to develop a vaccine to protect a variety of susceptible marine fish species against the ectoparasite that causes saltwater “ich,” Cryptocaryon irritans.
Preliminary experiments performed in our laboratory have confirmed that a very low percentage of wild populations of crustacean decapods from Oahu are positive for WSSV, to include Palaemon debilis (grass shrimp), Pachygrapsus sp. (shore crab), and Thalamita crenata (mangrove swimming crab). This was based on a very small scale survey of decapod crustaceans from Kane‘ohe Bay and additional sampling (to increase sample size and inclusion of more species) is on-going. It is imperative to establish pathogenicity of shrimp viruses for wild populations and to learn more about the transmissibility of these viruses between wild and cultured populations in order to understand the risks infected commodity shrimp may pose in Hawai‘i.
In order to better understand and characterize coral health we are studying gene expression of various coral and coral-associated microbial species using an assortment of molecular techniques, to include polymerase chain reaction (PCR), cDNA library construction, subtractive hybridization, and real time PCR. These techniques allow us to 1) gain a deeper understanding of aquatic organisms on the molecular level and 2) use this information to identify biomarker genes to assess if these organisms are responding to factors such as elevated water temperature, ultraviolet light, water flow conditions, toxicants, and/or to pathogens.

Publications

Hagedorn, M., R. Pan, E. F. Cox, L. L. Hollingsworth, D. A. Krupp, T. D. Lewis, J-A. C. Leong, P. Mazur, W. Rall, D. R. MacFarlane, G. Fahy, and F. W. Kleinhans. Coral larvae conservation: physiology and reproduction. Cryobiology (in press, 2006).

Hollingsworth, L.L., T. D. Lewis, D. A. Krupp, and J-A. C. Leong. Early onset and expression of fluorescent proteins in the larvae of the mushroom coral, Fungia scutaria Lamarck 1801. Proceedings of the 10th Int Coral Reef Symposium, Okinawa, JP, June 28-July 1, 2004. (in press, 2006).

Misumi, I., J. L. Keffer, T. D. Lewis. 2005. AquaTips: Vaccine development against Cryptocaryon irritans A progress report. CTSA Regional Notes 16:4-5,10.

HollingsworthL. L., R. A. Kinzie III, D. A. Krupp, T. D. Lewis, and J-A. C. Leong. 2005. Phototaxis of motile zooxanthellae to green light may facilitate symbiont capture by coral larvae. Coral Reefs 24:523.

Lewis, T. D. and J-A. C. Leong. 2004. Viruses of Fish. In Molecular Aspects of Fish and Marine Biology, Vol. 3: Current trends in the study of bacterial and viral fish and shrimp diseases. (ed) Ka Yin Leung. World Scientific Publishing Co. pp 39-81.

Lewis, T. D., I. Misumi, C. D. Kelley, M. L. Kent, and J-A. C. Leong. 2004. Expression library immunization for development for vaccines for use in aquaculture. Journal of Shellfish Research 23:301.

Leisy, D. J., T. D. Lewis, J-A. C. Leong and G. F. Rohrman. 2003. Transduction of cultured fish cell lines with recombinant baculoviruses. Journal of General Virology 84:1173-1178.

Ottinger, C. A., T. D. Lewis, D. A. Shapiro, M. Faisal, and S. L. Kaattari. 2001. Detection of Perkinsus marinus extracellular proteins in tissues of the Eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica): Potential use in diagnostic assays. Journal of Aquatic Animal Health. 13:133-141.

Lewis T. D. 2000. The specific immune response in rainbow trout: Somatic hypermutation and VH gene utilization. Ph.D. Dissertation. College of William & Mary. pp 223.

Oliver J. L., T. D. Lewis, M. Faisal, and S. L. Kaattari. 1999. Analysis of the effects of Perkinsus marinus proteases on plasma proteins of the Eastern (Crassostrea virginica) and Pacific oyster (Crassostrea gigas). Journal of Invertebrate Pathology 74:173-183.

Teaching Experience

Molecular Biology of Corals, HIMB Pauley Summer Program , 2002
Coral Molecular Biology Techniques, 2003–present

Professional Service

American Fisheries Society – Fish Health Section
International Society of Developmental and Comparative Immunology
International Society of Genetics in Aquaculture
Sigma Xi
World Aquaculture Association

Graduate Faculty Affiliation

UH Microbiology

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