Why Genetics is Key to The Evolution of Aquaculture

The potential of fish and shellfish production to feed a\r\ngrowing global population could be significantly enhanced through advances in\r\ngenetics and biotechnology.

Many species of fish and shellfish have been domesticated\r\nrelatively recently compared with most livestock species, and so have diverse\r\ngene pools with major potential for selective breeding, according to a new\r\nreview paper in Nature Reviews Genetics.

Sequencing the Atlantic salmon genome has had a huge impact\r\non breeding programmes, which could be replicated in other farmed aquatic\r\nspecies

© SalmoBreed

The development of tools to gain insight into the genetics\r\nof these species, and apply such tools for breeding and management, provides\r\nopportunities to release that potential, researchers say.

Most aquaculture species can produce many\r\noffspring, and large populations with improved genetics can be bred quickly for\r\nimproved production performance.

The benefits may include improved growth, resistance to\r\ndisease or robustness in diverse farming environments.

Farmed fish is on course to overtake wild fish as\r\nthe main source of seafood, and consequently genetic tools and expertise are in\r\nhigh demand to increase the efficiency and sustainability of aquaculture\r\nsystems, which currently rely mostly on unselected stocks.

Insight into the genomes of species can enable careful\r\nselection of a farming population with desirable traits, and monitoring genomic\r\nvariation will help maintain genetic diversity as farm populations develop.

In the future, technologies such as genome editing could be\r\nused to introduce desirable traits, such as disease resistance, into farmed\r\nspecies, and surrogate breeding could be employed to support production of\r\npreferred species.

The review paper – a collaboration between experts from\r\nUniversities of Edinburgh, Exeter, Stirling, and Aberdeen – is an output of the\r\nAquaLeap consortium project.

AquaLeap is funded by the Biotechnology and Biological\r\nSciences Research Council, the Natural Environment Research Council and the\r\nScottish Aquaculture Innovation Centre, in partnership with the Centre for\r\nEnvironment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, Hendrix Genetics, Xelect, The\r\nNational Lobster Hatchery, Tethys oysters, and Otter Ferry SeaFish.

Environmental biologist Dr Eduarda Santos, from the\r\nUniversity of Exeter, who is the co-author of the study, said: "The rapid\r\nexpansion of aquaculture has contributed to increased food security across the\r\nglobe, however, issues related to domestication of desired species and\r\nemergence of diseases, limit its further development.

"Genomics has the potential to offer solutions to many\r\nof these limitations by improving our knowledge of the genomes of cultured\r\norganisms, genetic selection, and better understanding of the dynamic\r\ninteractions between genes and the environment, to maximise food\r\nproduction."

Dr Jamie Stevens, also from the University of Exeter and\r\nco-author added: "We only have to look at the example of Atlantic salmon\r\nto see the immense value of a sequenced genome to the relatively recent\r\noptimisation of a wild species for the aquaculture market.

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"Similarly, we anticipate the delivery of a genome for\r\nother species, including the European lobster, will offer similar opportunities\r\nto develop molecular tools with which to rapidly increase the potential of\r\nlobster as an aquaculture species and improve the sustainability of its wild\r\npopulations."

Source: The Fish Site