Genotype by environment interactions for growth in European seabass ( Dicentrarchus labrax) are large when growth rate rather than weight is considered

Abstract

Two hundred fifty three full-sib families from 33 males and 23 females of European seabass were produced in a partly factorial mating design. All fish were reared in the same tank for 14 months until reaching mean weight of 35 g, then 7000 of them were individually tagged and weighed, and dispatched to four farms in different locations (France, Israel, Italy and Portugal) representing a wide variety of environmental conditions. Around mean weight of 400 g, 1177 to 1667 fish at each site were weighed. Daily growth coefficient (DGC) was calculated. Pedigrees were successfully redrawn for 99.2% of fish using microsatellite markers. Genetic correlations between sites were high for body weight (> 0.80 in all cases but one, i.e., five cases over six), but only moderate for DGC (0.21–0.61), with one exception. This indicates significant G × E interactions for growth rate, which were not revealed when studying body weight due to shared common environment of the fish prior to separation to the different rearing environments.