2018 |
Anastasiadi, D., et al. "Dynamic epimarks in sex-related genes predict gonad phenotype in the European sea bass, a fish with mixed genetic and environmental sex determination." Epigenetics. 13.9 (2018): 988–1011.
Résumé: The integration of genomic and environmental influences into methylation patterns to bring about a phenotype is of central interest in developmental epigenetics, but many details are still unclear. The sex ratios of the species used here, the European sea bass, are determined by genetic and temperature influences. We created four families from parents known to produce offspring with different sex ratios, exposed larvae to masculinizing temperatures and examined, in juvenile gonads, the DNA methylation of seven genes related to sexual development by a targeted sequencing approach. The genes most affected by both genetics and environment were cyp19a1a and dmrt1, with contrasting sex-specific methylation and temperature responses. The relationship between cyp19a1a methylation and expression is relevant to the epigenetic regulation of vertebrate sex, and we report the evidence of such relationship only below a methylation threshold, 80%, and that it was sex-specific: negatively correlated in females but positively correlated in males. From parents to offspring, the methylation in gonads was midway between oocytes and sperm, with bias towards oocytes for amh-r2, er-β2, fsh-r and cyp19a1a. In contrast, dmrt1 levels resembled those of sperm. The methylation of individual CpGs from foxl2, er-β2 and nr3c1 were conserved from parents to offspring, whereas those of cyp19a1a, dmrt1 and amh-r2 were affected by temperature. Utilizing a machine-learning procedure based on the methylation levels of a selected set of CpGs, we present the first, to our knowledge, system based on epigenetic marks capable of predicting sex in an animal with 90% accuracy and discuss possible applications.
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Duranton, M., et al. "The origin and remolding of genomic islands of differentiation in the European sea bass." Nature Communications. 9.1 (2018): 2518.
Résumé: The speciation process tends to generate ‘genomic islands’ of increased divergence. Here, the authors use haplotype–resolved whole-genome sequences of European sea bass lineages to infer divergence history and show that linked selection generated genomic islands that resist introgression at secondary contact.
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Faggion, S., et al. "Population-specific variations of the genetic architecture of sex determination in wild European sea bass Dicentrarchus labrax L." Heredity (2018): 1.
Résumé: Polygenic sex determination (PSD) may show variations in terms of genetic and environmental components between populations of fish species exposed/adapted to different environments. The European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) is an interesting model, combining both a PSD system and a genetic subdivision into an Atlantic and a Mediterranean lineage, with genetic substructures within the Mediterranean Sea. Here, we produced experimental progeny crosses (N = 927) from broodstock sampled in four wild populations (North Atlantic, NAT; Western Mediterranean, WEM; North-Eastern Mediterranean, NEM; South-Eastern Mediterranean, SEM). We found less females than males in the progeny, both in the global dataset (32.5%) and within each paternal group (from 25.1% for NEM to 39.0% for WEM), with significant variation among populations, dams, and sires. Sex, body weight (BW), and body length (BL) showed moderate heritability (0.52 ± 0.17, 0.46 ± 0.17, 0.34 ± 0.15, respectively) and sex was genetically correlated with BW and BL, with rAsex/BW = 0.69 ± 0.12 and rA sex/BL = 0.66 ± 0.13. A weighted GWAS performed both on the global dataset and within each paternal group revealed a different genetic architecture of sex determination between Atlantic and Mediterranean populations (9 QTLs found in NAT, 7 in WEM, 5 in NEM, and 4 in SEM, with a cumulated variance explained of 27.04%, 21.87%, 15.89%, and 12.10%, respectively) and a more similar genetic architecture among geographically close populations compared to geographically distant populations, consistent with the hypothesis of a population-specific evolution of polygenic sex determination systems in different environments.
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Palaiokostas, C., et al. "Genome-wide association and genomic prediction of resistance to viral nervous necrosis in European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) using RAD sequencing." Genetics Selection Evolution. 50 (2018): 30.
Résumé: European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) is one of the most important species for European aquaculture. Viral nervous necrosis (VNN), commonly caused by the redspotted grouper nervous necrosis virus (RGNNV), can result in high levels of morbidity and mortality, mainly during the larval and juvenile stages of cultured sea bass. In the absence of efficient therapeutic treatments, selective breeding for host resistance offers a promising strategy to control this disease. Our study aimed at investigating genetic resistance to VNN and genomic-based approaches to improve disease resistance by selective breeding. A population of 1538 sea bass juveniles from a factorial cross between 48 sires and 17 dams was challenged with RGNNV with mortalities and survivors being recorded and sampled for genotyping by the RAD sequencing approach.
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2017 |
Allal, F., et al. "Heritability of Coping Styles in Farmed European Seabass." Aquaculture. 472 (2017): 91.
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de Verdal, H., et al. "Improving feed efficiency in fish using selective breeding: a review." Rev Aquacult (2017).
Résumé: Improving feed efficiency (FE) is key to reducing production costs in aquaculture and to achieving sustainability for the aquaculture industry. Feed costs account for 30–70% of total production costs in aquaculture; much work has been done on nutritional and husbandry approaches to improve FE but only a limited amount of research has been devoted to using genetics, despite its potential. This paper reviews past work to improve FE in fish using selective breeding and assess future directions. Direct selection on FE traits requires methods to measure individual feed consumption and estimate FE efficiently and accurately. This is particularly difficult to do in fish because of the environment in which they live. Many of the published studies on FE were found to be inaccurate because of methodological problems. The relatively low heritability estimates of FE traits in fish published to date are probably partly as a result of inaccurate measurements of feed intake. Improving ways to measure the individual feed intake with high accuracy will be critical to the successful application of genetics to improving FE. Indirect selection criteria that could be used to improve FE (including growth after starvation/refeeding, body composition, neuropeptides or hormone levels) are discussed. Promising approaches to measuring feed intake accurately that may enable these studies to be undertaken are identified. More work using these will be needed prior to assessing the practicality of the introduction of direct or indirect traits for FE in fish genetic improvement programmes.
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Doan, K. Q., et al. "Genetic variation of resistance to Viral Nervous Necrosis and genetic correlations with production traits in wild populations of the European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax)." Aquaculture. 478 (2017): 1–8.
Résumé: Viral Nervous Necrosis (VNN) disease is considered as one of the most serious threats for European sea bass cultured in Mediterranean Sea, with no simple and effective procedures to treat this disease. In this study, 1472 offspring resulting from artificial full factorial mating of western Mediterranean dams with sires from four different wild populations of European sea bass (Northern Atlantic, NAT; Western Mediterranean, WEM; Northern-East Mediterranean, NEM; and Southern-East Mediterranean, SEM) were challenged by experimental infection to W80 betanodavirus strain in order to evaluate genetic variations for VNN resistance among populations and genetic correlations between VNN resistance and production traits. The results showed a large variation of VNN resistance between the four populations tested as well as between sire families within strain. The survivals between pure wild populations SEM, NEM, WEM and NAT were estimated at 99%, 94%, 62%, and 44%, respectively. A moderate intra-population heritability of VNN resistance, calculated based on liability scale with sire model, was recorded for the first time in European sea bass (h2u = 0.26 ± 0.11). Finally, moderate negative genetic correlations between VNN resistance and daily growth coefficient (DGC) and body weight (BW) were also demonstrated (− 0.28 ± 0.20, − 0.35 ± 0.14, respectively) while the genetic correlation between resistance to VNN and fillet adiposity (FA) was weakly negative and not significant (− 0.13 ± 0.19). These results give good prospects of selective breeding of European sea bass for improved resistance to VNN disease.
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Doan, K. Q., et al. "Viral encephalopathy and retinopathy in aquaculture: a review." J Fish Dis. 40.5 (2017): 717–742.
Résumé: Viral encephalopathy and retinopathy (VER), otherwise known as viral nervous necrosis (VNN), is a major devastating threat for aquatic animals. Betanodaviruses have been isolated in at least 70 aquatic animal species in marine and in freshwater environments throughout the world, with the notable exception of South America. In this review, the main features of betanodavirus, including its diversity, its distribution and its transmission modes in fish, are firstly presented. Then, the existing diagnosis and detection methods, as well as the different control procedures of this disease, are reviewed. Finally, the potential of selective breeding, including both conventional and genomic selection, as an opportunity to obtain resistant commercial populations, is examined.
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Doan, Q. K., et al. "Combining Vitassign and Colony: An Efficient Practical Procedure for Parental Assignment with Missing Parents." Aquaculture. 472 (2017): 128.
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Hillen, J. E. J., et al. "Estimates of genetic variability and inbreeding in experimentally selected populations of European sea bass." Aquaculture. 479 (2017): 742–749.
Résumé: The aquaculture industry has increasingly aimed at improving economically important traits like growth, feed efficiency and resistance to infections. Artificial selection represents an important window of opportunity to significantly improve production. However, the pitfall is that selection will reduce genetic diversity and increase inbreeding in the farmed stocks. Genetic tools are very useful in this context as they provide accurate measures of genetic diversity together with many additional insights in the stock status and the selection process. In this study we assessed the level of genetic variability and relatedness over several generations of two lines of experimentally selected European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax L.). The first line was selected for growth over three generations and the second line for both high and low weight loss under a starvation regime over two generations. We used a genomic approach (2549 single nucleotide polymorphism markers derived from double digest restriction site associated DNA sequencing) in combination with eight microsatellites to estimate genetic variation, relatedness, effective population size and genetic differentiation across generations. Individual heterozygosity estimates indicated that the selected lines showed no significant reduction in diversity compared with wild populations. There was, however, a decreasing trend in allelic richness, suggesting the loss of low frequency alleles. We compared the estimates of effective population size from genetic markers with pedigree information and found good correspondence between methods. This study provides important insights in the genetic consequences of selective breeding and demonstrates the operational use of the latest genomic tools to estimate variability, inbreeding and at a later stage domestication and artificial selection.
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Vandeputte, M., et al. "Does early growth play a role in the sex determination of european SEABASS Dicentrarchus labrax?" Aquaculture. 472 (2017): 114.
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Vandeputte, M., et al. "Investigation of morphological predictors of fillet and carcass yield in European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) for application in selective breeding." Aquaculture. 470 (2017): 40–49.
Résumé: Genetic parameters for carcass and fillet percentage were estimated in 760 European sea bass reared under commercial conditions and slaughtered at 573 days post fertilization (395 g mean body weight). Phenotyped fish were the offspring of 45 sires and 20 dams crossed in a factorial mating design. Pedigrees were re-constructed with 90.7% success using 12 microsatellites. The heritability of fillet yield was moderately low (0.21), while it was high for carcass yield (0.57). Both traits were poorly correlated (− 0.01 to 0.28) making space for their combined improvement. We investigated different predictors derived from measurement of surfaces on digital pictures and ultrasound measurements at several points of the body. The accuracy of the phenotypic prediction was rather low for fillet yield (r2 = 0.02–0.18), but higher for carcass yield (r2 = 0.27–0.41). However, genetic correlations of predictors with the traits to predict were reasonably high (up to 0.67 for fillet yield and 0.95 for carcass yield), thus allowing to consider them for performing indirect individual selection instead of sib selection. However, it was difficult to design a predictor that would simultaneously increase fillet yield and carcass yield because of contradicting effects of relative head size, an important component of the predictors which was positively correlated to carcass yield but not to fillet yield.
Statement of relevance
We estimated phenotypic predictors for processing yields in the European sea bass and estimated their genetic variation and correlations with the traits to predict. This is important to be able to apply indirect selection for processing yields in this species. This showed that although the traits of interest were hardly correlated, it was not possible to find external predictors having a significant positive impacts on both traits (carcass and fillet yield) simultaneously. This highlights the need to study specifically these issues in different species and conditions, as the picture here is very different to the well studied case of rainbow trout for example.
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2016 |
Ferrari, S., et al. "Heritability of Boldness and Hypoxia Avoidance in European Seabass, Dicentrarchus labrax." PLoS One. 11.12 (2016): e0168506.
Résumé: To understand the genetic basis of coping style in European seabass, fish from a full factorial mating (10 females x 50 males) were reared in common garden and individually tagged. Individuals coping style was characterized through behavior tests at four different ages, categorizing fish into proactive or reactive: a hypoxia avoidance test (at 255 days post hatching, dph) and 3 risk-taking tests (at 276, 286 and 304 dph). We observed significant heritability of the coping style, higher for the average of risk-taking scores (h(2) = 0.45 +/- 0.14) than for the hypoxia avoidance test (h(2) = 0.19 +/- 0.10). The genetic correlations between the three risk-taking scores were very high (r(A) = 0.96-0.99) showing that although their repeatability was moderately high (r(P) = 0.64-0.72), successive risk-taking tests evaluated the same genetic variation. A mild genetic correlation between the results of the hypoxia avoidance test and the average of risk-taking scores (0.45 +/- 0.27) suggested that hypoxia avoidance and risk-taking tests do not address exactly the same behavioral and physiological responses. Genetic correlations between weight and risk taking traits showed negative values whatever the test used in our population i.e. reactive individual weights were larger. The results of this quantitative genetic analysis suggest a potential for the development of selection programs based on coping styles that could increase seabass welfare without altering growth performances. Overall, it also contributes to a better understanding of the origin and the significance of individual behavioral differences.
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Hubert, J. - N., et al. "How could fully scaled carps appear in natural waters in Madagascar?" Proc. R. Soc. B. 283.1837 (2016): 20160945.
Résumé: The capacity of organisms to rapidly evolve in response to environmental changes is a key feature of evolution, and studying mutation compensation is a way to evaluate whether alternative routes of evolution are possible or not. Common carps (Cyprinus carpio) carrying a homozygous loss-of-function mutation for the scale cover gene fgfr1a1, causing the ‘mirror’ reduced scale cover, were introduced in Madagascar a century ago. Here we show that carps in Malagasy natural waters are now predominantly covered with scales, though they still all carry the homozygous mutation. We also reveal that the number of scales in mutated carps is under strong polygenic genetic control, with a heritability of 0.49. As a whole, our results suggest that carps submitted to natural selection could evolve a wild-type-like scale cover in less than 40 generations from standing polygenic genetic variation, confirming similar findings mainly retrieved from model organisms.
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