Pearl grafting: tracking the biological origin of nuclei by straightforward immunological methods.

9 pages; International audience; French Polynesia is renowned for the production of Tahitian black pearl. These gems are obtained by grafting a nucleus into the gonad of a receiving oyster together with a graft, i.e. a small section of mantle tissue of a donor oyster. This procedure initiates the formation of a pearl sack around the nucleus, and subsequently, the deposition of concentric layers of nacre. The nucleus plays a key-role in pearl formation and its characteristics influence markedly the quality of the final product. As it is manufactured from mollusc shells, it contains a small percentage of organics. In the present paper, we used a set of biochemical techniques to characterize a…