Stirling breakthrough first Genome Sequencing for Tilapia

Researchers have made a breakthrough in sequencing the complete genome of the Nile tilapia, one of the world’s most important cultured food fishes. Using DNA from a special line of tilapia developed in the Institute of Aquaculture at the University of Stirling, the sequencing was carried out by the Broad Institute (part of MIT, near Boston in the USA). This is the first commercial aquaculture species to have its genome sequenced.

The Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) is the most important cultured foodfish globally after carp, even outstripping salmon, and is closely related to the huge flocks of cichlid species in the East African Rift Valley lakes which are studied by evolutionary biologists. Dr David Penman of the Institute of Aquaculture explained: “This tilapia line was developed to have two identical copies of every part of its genome (normally vertebrates show some differences between the genes inherited from the mother and father), which simplified the processing of the genome sequence data. Read more ...

This blog is written by Martin Little The Aquaculturists, published and supported by the International Aquafeed Magazine from Perendale Publishers