pearl sac tissue

[Marianne]

Fascinating, Dave! Thank you for sharing your knowledge and findings.

 

[CathyKeshi]

Oh, I LOVE it when the science comes out to play! Fascinating posts Dave, questions Wendy, add-ins from MSC etc. ... just incredible. Keep writing please, Dave ... and I especially appreciate that it's not "dumbed down"; my job to study it, read, digest and learn from it The speculation on the colors inside the shells is particularly fascinating. Thanks all!

 

[LVLanghanke]

Well, I'm super embarrassed of my answer now. What an idiot I look like! Regardless, this is so informative and I love it and need to read more!

 

[Katbran]

Good idea Pattye.... lol....all this time and I never knew there was a 'rate' button !! Thank you !

Dave you explain things very well - you are extremely thoughtful in the way you present all of your information and your responses are invaluable in so many threads !! Thank you so much for taking the time ! Much appreciated !

Great discussion, Dave and Wendy and All! I'll be rereading this more than once! Recommend we all rate this thread up at the top of the page, so it will stay at the top of the Tahitian Pearls forum section where we can come back to it easily. Thanks!!

 

[MSC]

Such wonderfully thorough information, definitely saving this thread for continued reading. Thanks, Dave!

 

[amti]

You know you're a true lover of pearls when you read this conversation and want to know more, even if you didn't understand all of it!

 

[LVLanghanke]

Dave, do you know of any good (free) resources for learning the more technical side of things? The Pearls as One course is wonderful, but I feel like I've just scratched the surface of something wonderful!

 

[Pareltje]

I found this thread so amazing, very informative. It deserves a sticky.

 

[Lagoon Island Pearls]

Dave, do you know of any good (free) resources for learning the more technical side of things? The Pearls as One course is wonderful, but I feel like I've just scratched the surface of something wonderful!

I'm not sure any single repository exists, but there are countless publications scattered on various sites.

I have a small resource library at http://lagoonislandpearls.ca/resources.htm with PDF publications of the original authors.

That goes with the caveat that much of my work is ongoing, incomplete, unpublished or pending peer review.

 

[pearlescence]

I thought up a new question:
quite a few pearls are grafted from one donor's tissue. Will all those pearls be identical (colour, lustre, nacre deposition)?
I wondered because if they are farmers are certainly missing a trick with pairs or even strands, being tossed into a big bowl, mixed and lost
My question is thus..with the grafted tissue presumably identical as it goes in, how identical are the pearls which come out?

 

[Lagoon Island Pearls]

My question is thus..with the grafted tissue presumably identical as it goes in, how identical are the pearls which come out?

Good question. As I mentioned earlier, mantles are latticed structures and this is reflected in mottled shell patterns. If this was not true, individual shells would be one color, but they're not.

To use an example, freshwater recipients have mantle tissue of the same donor. The colors range slightly, but certainly not broadly.

 

[Lagoon Island Pearls]

Here's an example from the wild, showing identical color across multiple instances in a single mantle. These however, are not of grafts, but from a myostracial disorder. In this case, likely autoimmunity from a hormonal or other undetermined etiological factor. Microscopy did not reveal the presence of protozoa, thus ruled out blood borne parasites. I grafted some of this tissue into another animal which formed pearls, but not the disease. The resulting pearls were not identical.

 

[pearlescence]

I lay awake at night thinking these question up now!

 

[Lagoon Island Pearls]

I lay awake at night thinking these question up now!

When I was eight, my folks told me these secrets would never be revealed. To that end I say ... Hah!

Now you know the story of my life

 

[Katbran]

Thanks Dave ..and thanks to Wendy for all the great questions!

Great photos Dave and those pearls are beautiful!