Genetic's Roles in Aquaculture

Catfish have become a commercially important fish due to the increased use technology based around aquaculture. Fish farms throughout the southern United States now produce inexpensive and desirable catfish flesh. Increases in technology and practices have led to increased yields and increased quality fish.



Fish farms are now working on breeding fish for desired genetic traits; however, this is a multifaceted endeavor. The USDA has been reporting on the current goals in research with catfish genetics and also the completed advancements in catfish genetics for many years.



Currently, the main push of the research is being directed at breeding catfish for the most desirable characteristics. The two main traits selected for are increased reproductive efficiency and growth efficiency. USDA conducted experiments by crossing different catfish strains and producing genetic linkage maps. Chromosomal location were identified for disease resistance, reproductive efficiency, and growth efficiency. Researchers identified genes that caused changed expression in insulin growth factor or IGF. Increased levels of IFG lead to weight gain. Cross breeding different strains of catfish with higher resistance levels to bacteria led to offspring with a 10% increased survival rate.

Increased knowledge in genetics can help increase production in aquaculture; however, it is not limited to aquaculture but will help in all forms of agriculture to improve outputs.