Abstract
Mass spawning in fish culture often brings about a marked variance in family size, which can cause a reduction in effective population sizes in seed production for stock enhancement. This study reports an example of combined pedigree information and gene expression phenotypes to understand differential family survival mechanisms in early stages of Pacific bluefin tuna, Thunnus orientalis, in a mass culture tank. Initially, parentage was determined using the partial mitochondrial DNA control region sequence and 11 microsatellite loci at 1, 10, 15, and 40 days post-hatch (DPH). A dramatic proportional change in the families was observed at around 15 DPH; therefore, transcriptome analysis was conducted for the 15 DPH larvae using a previously developed oligonucleotide microarray. This analysis successfully addressed the family-specific gene expression phenotypes with 5739 differentially expressed genes and highlighted the importance of expression levels of gastric-function-related genes at the developmental stage for subsequent survival. This strategy demonstrated herein can be broadly applicable to species of interest in aquaculture to comprehend the molecular mechanism of parental effects on offspring survival, which will contribute to the optimization of breeding technologies.
Highlights
Life stages in many fish species are characterized by high mortality
This study investigated the parental effects on survival and the gene expression phenotype in early stages of Pacific bluefin tuna (PBT), Thunnus orientalis, which were developed in a mass culture tank
We initially examined parentage and family representation for progenies of PBT derived from the mass spawning of a broodstock group at 1, 10, 15, and 40 days post-hatch (DPH) in a mass culture tank
Summary
Life stages in many fish species are characterized by high mortality Fecundity of these fishes is big, and they typically broadcast their eggs through mass spawning [1]. When culturing these highly fecund fishes, mass spawning arbitrarily in a single tank or cage is a common practice [2]. This reproductive strategy often exhibits a highly imbalanced family structure in offspring, as revealed by genetic-marker-based parentage analyses in a number of aquaculture species, and thereby can lead to a high risk of rapid gene loss [3]. A better understanding of the mechanisms behind differential family survival will provide valuable information for improving breeding technology in aquaculture
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