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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Leetown, West Virginia » Cool and Cold Water Aquaculture Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #353250
Research Project: Integrated Research Approaches for Improving Production Efficiency in Salmonids

Location: Cool and Cold Water Aquaculture Research

Title: Marker-assisted selection for resistance to bacterial cold water disease in a commercial rainbow trout breeding population

Author
item Liu, Sixin
item Vallejo, Roger
item Evenhuis, Jason
item MARTIN, KYLE - Troutlodge, Inc
item HAMILTON, ALASTAIR - Hendrix Genetics
item Gao, Guangtu
item Leeds, Timothy - Tim
item Wiens, Gregory - Greg
item Palti, Yniv

Submitted to: International Symposium on Genetics in Aquaculture
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/12/2018
Publication Date: 7/18/2018
Citation: Liu, S., Vallejo, R.L., Evenhuis, J., Martin, K.E., Hamilton, A., Gao, G., Leeds, T.D., Wiens, G.D., Palti, Y. 2018. Marker-assisted selection for resistance to bacterial cold water disease in a commercial rainbow trout breeding population [abstract]. International Symposium on Genetics in Aquaculture. P:1330-1345.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Bacterial cold water disease (BCWD), caused by Flavobacterium psychrophilum, is an endemic and problematic disease in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) aquaculture. Previously, we have identified SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) associated with BCWD resistance in rainbow trout. The objectives of this study were 1) to validate the SNPs associated with BCWD resistance in a commercial breeding population; and 2) to evaluate retrospectively the accuracy of MAS (marker-assisted selection) for BCWD resistance in this commercial breeding program. The Troutlodge May breeding population was evaluated for BCWD resistance in three consecutive generations, 2013TLUM, 2015TLUM and 2017TLUM. Based on our previous studies, a panel of 96 SNPs was selected and used to genotype the parents and ten offspring from each of the 138 full-sib families of the 2015TLUM generation, and 37 SNPs associated with BCWD resistance were validated. Thirty-six of the validated SNPs were clustered on chromosomes Omy3, Omy8 and Omy25. Thus, at least three QTL (quantitative trait loci) for BCWD resistance were validated in the 2015TLUM generation. Three SNPs from each QTL region were used for haplotype association analysis. Three haplotypes, Omy3TGG, Omy8GCG and Omy25CGG, were found to be associated with BCWD resistance in the 2015TLUM generation. Retrospective analyses were then performed to evaluate the accuracy of MAS for BCWD resistance using these three favorable haplotypes. The accuracy of MAS was estimated with the Pearson correlation coefficient between the total number of favorable haplotypes in the two parents and the family BCWD survival rates. The Omy8 and Omy25 haplotypes were positively correlated with the family BCWD survival rates across all three generations. The accuracies of MAS using these two haplotypes together were consistently around 0.5, which was equal or greater than the accuracy of the conventional family-based selection in the same generation. In conclusion, we have demonstrated that MAS for BCWD resistance is feasible in this commercial rainbow trout breeding population.