Fish Transcriptomics: Applied to Our Understanding of Aquaculture

Abstract

New challenges arise in the face of global climate change which impact every ecosystem on earth, including aquatic systems. This is evident in observations made in regard to the world’s oceans, which show trends of incremental changes in ocean surface temperatures, sea levels, and ocean acidity. These environmental shifts impact human resources such as fisheries and aquaculture. In addition, according to the World Bank, the increase in human population will also require more food and nutrient production, which include industries such as aquaculture. With this increasing demand in aquaculture and fisheries, we must develop efficient and productive methods to operate these industries. We can use genetic methods, specifically transcriptomic information to better understand the biology of our source of nutrition. With the advent of RNASeq techniques, we can provide a better understanding about growth and development, immune function and stress, and adaptations. The use of population genetics or (genomics) to detect Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) between populations or closely related species can provide greater insight from stock structure to fishery-induced evolution. In addition, candidate loci can be investigated further to better understanding evolutionary processes, which provide clues on physiological adaptations and gene expression patterns that can help elucidate how these organisms respond to their current environment. In addition, the use of transcriptomic analyses such as differential gene expression can be used to determine resilience in various environmental conditions such as pollution, hypoxic/anoxic conditions, fluctuations in salinity, and temperature extremes. There has been an increase in transcriptomic studies for many aquaculture species, which has aimed at improving our understanding of growth, development, and metabolism, providing vital information for fisheries and aquaculture industries to make adjustments to environmental conditions such as oxygen availability, nutrition, and salinity. All of these aspects provide insightful information for advancing our knowledge of aquaculture, fisheries and conservation management.

Retos y perspectivas del sector acuí­cola rumbo al 2050

“…Por otro lado, las últimas tecnologías, como la transcriptómica (secuenciación de ARNm de alto rendimiento, RNA-seq), han facilitado el entendimiento de la complejidad funcional de la expresión de genes de un organismo, en un principio, por la rápida identificación de genes clave involucrados en la reproducción, el crecimiento, estrés y enfermedades de es-pecies de interés. Sin embargo, el potencial de estas aplicaciones hoy en día va dirigido además a generar recursos genéticos y lograr un entendimiento más completo, al identificar la expresión diferencial y correlacionada de genes, con las vías moleculares y de transducción de señales (Chandhini y Kumar, 2018, Heras 2020). Además, estas herramientas tendrán un papel importante para prever los efectos del cambio climático en la actividad acuícola, al poder, por ejemplo, evaluar genes de estrés en escenarios hipotéticos o actuales de incrementos de temperatura (Heras 2020, Natnan et al, 2021).…”

Exploring Omega-3′s Impact on the Expression of Bone-Related Genes in Meagre (Argyrosomus regius)

“…Currently, thanks to the advances in genetic sequencing technologies and computational methods, we can use genomic and transcriptomic approaches to gain information to improve fish health and quality in the aquaculture sector [28]. In fact, it is believed that gaining knowledge about genes that are involved in the molecular pathways employed by these nutrients is a promising tool for the aquaculture industry with which to reduce the prevalence of deformities [29].…”