Selective breeding windfall
The Horizon 2020 programme, called European Marine Biological Research Infrastructure Cluster (EMBRIC), aims to connect marine biotechnology initiatives that focus on science, industry and regional development over the next four years.
The initiative aims to break down the barriers between research institutions and commercial R&D by linking biological and social science research infrastructures throughout Europe, and by joining up aligned efforts in science, industry and regions.
EMBRIC will put substantial efforts into developing the resources needed for the selective breeding of shellfish and finfish. It will focus on commercial needs, ensuring their practices and strategic goals are in line with cutting-edge molecular research largely performed outside of companies.
Leading companies involved in the project include Tunatech in Germany, Xelect in Scotland and Scalpro in Norway. They will collaborate with the University of St Andrews in Scotland, INRA in France, Marine Science Scotland, the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, in Greece and the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), which is located in the UK.
Dr Tom Ashton, of Xelect Ltd, commented: "EMBRIC is well placed to build on natural synergies between innovative companies and leading researchers throughout Europe. We expect it to create the essential scientific, commercial and social links that Europe needs to deliver substantial economic and scientific gain through marine biotechnology for years to come".
A key task for EMBRIC will be to develop protocols for assessing the most commercially important traits of growth, yield and disease resistance in king scallop from cultivation sites in Norway and Scotland. The partners will also develop methodologies for disease-challenge trials to establish this organism’s susceptibility and resistance to Vibrio spp. and other pathogens traditionally associated with death in shellfish.
EMBRIC will also evaluate methods to assess import traits for selection in finfish, including feed-conversion efficiency in European seabass, AGD resistance in Atlantic salmon, flesh texture and fat content in Atlantic bluefin tuna and growth rates of greater amberjack.
Global aquaculture production has yet to benefit from any form of genetic improvement, but next-generation DNA sequencing technologies have fallen in price dramatically, stimulating research and leading to a raft of relevant genome sequences available to study many shellfish and finfish of commercial importance. This has already resulted in new genetic tools for stock management that are used in family-selection programs, and the adoption of marker-assisted selection for disease resistance and increased meat yield in Atlantic salmon.
EMBRIC will conduct a comprehensive survey of the genetic resources available for selective breeding and develop industry standards and new pipelines for genetic marker discovery in order to ensure that industry benefits from the latest research.
Professor Ian Johnston, from the University of St Andrews in Scotland, told Fish Farming Expert: “Over the next decade the selective breeding of salmon will be revolutionised by the application of new genetic knowledge and bring substantial gains in production efficiency and product quality. As part of EMBRIC leading research institutes and SMEs across Europe will work together to ensure the adoption of latest technology for improving aquaculture strains. Work will include the development of standards and new methods for trait measurement including disease challenge trials. Together with the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) at Hinxton, we will develop more time- and cost-efficient pipelines for the analysis of large genetic data sets including whole genome resequencing of species with complex duplicated genomes such as Atlantic salmon.
“The EMBRIC 'Selective Breeding in Aquaculture‘ program has been designed to involve companies from the very start. In addition to having SMEs such as Xelect Ltd, a leader in marker assisted selection, embedded in the program we are organising a Company Forum which will be open to industry, academia and other professionals involved in the aquaculture industry. The Company Forum, led by Professor Christopher Bridges of TunaTech GmbH (Germany) will provide a platform for knowledge exchange and membership is free to all interested parties. The forum plans to hold a series of workshops over the course of the EMBRIC project”
For further details, or to join the company forum call Professor Ian Johnston on 01334463440 or Professor Christopher Bridges on +491739531905.
