Acronym NA
Category
Marine Biotechnology
Title Sockeye salmon - genetic effects Programme National Programme
Instrument (FP6)
Contact Type (FP7)
Strand (Interreg)
NA
Theme (FP7)
Activity Area (FP6)
Regional Area (Interreg)
Action (COST)
NA
Specific Programme (FP7)
NA
Funding source National Coordinator Dag Inge Våge Coordinator email daginge.vage@nmbu.no
Coordinator institution
NMBU - Norwegian University of Life Sciences (Norway)
Institutions involved
NA - AquaGen AS (Norway) ,
NA - Cermaq Norway AS (Norway) ,
NRS - Norway Royal Salmon (Norway) ,
NA - Skretting AS (Norway) ,
Start year 2020 End year 2022 Funding (€) € 401,000 Website https://www.fhf.no/prosjekter/prosjektbasen/901642/ Summary Pale and or uneven red color in salmon muscle is increasingly reported as a quality problem for Norwegian farmed salmon. The pigment level has been steadily decreasing in recent years, and in 2020 there are farmers reporting the lowest pigment levels ever measured in Norwegian farmed salmon. The red color comes from astaxanthin in the feed and it is assumed that changes in raw material composition, with an increased content of various vegetable raw materials, explains some of the reduced colouring. Pale fillet color and shielding are also linked to challenging operating conditions with increased handling of the fish and stress. The salmon respond to stress by consuming astaxanthin as an antioxidant. To solve the pigmentation problem, the astaxanthin content of the feed has been increased.
Several slaughter tests conducted by AquaGen show that genetics is crucial for good colouring, with a heritability of 0.6. This means that 60% of the color is controlled by genes involved in astaxanthin metabolism. A collaboration between AquaGen and CIGENE has identified three quantitative trait locus (QTL) that can increase the amount of accumulated astaxanthin in muscle by 2 mg/kg. Potential causal genes are now being tested using gene editing (CRISPR/CAS9) in the project ""Gene Editing to Innovate Norwegian Breeding Industries"" (GeneInnovate) (The Research Council's project no. 281928). The CRISPR fish gives the project group a unique opportunity to identify and study the mechanisms that are crucial for the uptake and retention of astaxanthin. In addition, there is a line of salmon that has been exclusively selected for extra intense red color which will supplement the experiments with the genetically edited fish. It is the significant variation in fillet color that makes the fish material so suitable for mechanism studies regarding astaxanthin absorption, transport and turnover. The project's focus will be on mapping the molecular mechanisms that control the uptake, transport and turnover of astaxanthin in salmon. This is basic knowledge that is also necessary to formulate a feed that provides sufficient color intensity and color stability in salmon fillets.
Main goal:
To ensure good coloring of Norwegian farmed salmon by describing and understanding genetic and molecular bottlenecks.
Sub-goals:
a) To verify genetic bottleneck effects on astaxanthin uptake in the intestinal epithelium using three established gene-edited lines.
b) To produce quantitative data on the uptake and degradation of astaxanthin in the intestinal epithelium using two genetically different lines.
c) To investigate how stress affects the turnover of astaxanthin and whether salmon with a high astaxanthin content is better protected against stress-related irregularities in fillet colour.
Keywords
Fish;
Genetic;
Genomic sequencing;
Fish quality;
Salmon;
Marine Region
76
Not associated to marine areas
0
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