The perfect salmon
Experts at Landcatch Natural Selection, based in Argyll, and their research partners, are aiming to be the first in the world to locate the genes that determine how susceptible individual Atlantic salmon are to certain diseases.
It is another pioneering advance from Landcatch who in 2007 were the first aquaculture company to be involved in work to pinpoint a gene influencing Infectious Pancreatic Necrosis (IPN) which poses a major threat to Atlantic salmon.
The work accelerates the pace of progress and will help breeders and researchers examine traits in individual fish and better understand their general survivability, omega-3 level and grilsing – or maturing – rates.
This involves a cutting-edge genomic selection tool – the SNP Chip – a glass slide used to analyse variations in DNA sequences, or Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs), which act as biological markers and help scientists locate a range of genes associated with disease.
There are many millions of these variations in every species, and these can be used as milestones on the DNA map. Scientists, who previously examined only five markers for one salmon gene, can now interrogate hundreds of thousands of markers for 20,000-30,000 genes.
In essence, Landcatch can discover more information on one fish than was previously available on thousands. This level of breeding expertise would normally take many decades to reach, but Landcatch will do it in just two.
The work to find the gene is being undertaken with a number of commercial and academic partners, including Edinburgh University, Roslin Institute, Stirling Institute of Aquaculture and Glasgow University, with support from the UK Technology Strategy Board.
Landcatch general manager Neil Manchester added: “The missing genes are like our Holy Grail and finding them will have widespread positive implications.Breeding fish that are resistant to lice and disease will be an incredible achievement and a major commercial breakthrough for aquaculture and efforts to fight the war on hunger.”
