Freshwater mussels are a critical part of healthy river ecology, but several species are considered endangered at local, state, and national levels.

The Columbus Zoo’s Freshwater Mussel Conservation and Research Center is working on methods to address these population concerns. The facility is the first in the state and among only a few in the nation to propagate freshwater mussels in vitro (in a petri dish).

Freshwater mussels require a host fish in their life cycle to fully transform into juvenile mussels. With in vitro propagation, this state can be bypassed by supplying the mussel larva with all the protein and nutrients at the appropriate temperature and pH that it would be getting from attaching itself to the gills of a host fish.

One benefit of in vitro propagation is that thousands of mussels could be produced and reared as opposed to a couple hundred that would grow via traditional methods by attaching to a host fish.