Plant & Animal Genomes XI Conference

January 11-15, 2003
Town & Country Convention Center
San Diego, CA

Workshop: Aquaculture
            

DEVELOPMENT OF MOLECULAR TOOLS FOR GENOME RESEARCH IN RAINBOW TROUT

USDA/ARS National Center for Cool and Cold Water Aquaculture, 11876 Leetown Road, Kearneysville, West Virginia, 25430, USA

Selective breeding has long been used for the genetic improvement of species for agriculture. At the NCCCWA, we are integrating genomics, quantitative genetics, and physiology in a selective breeding program for rainbow trout with the goals of 1) developing technologies that identify superior performing genotypes and 2) identifying superior performing fish (with respect to stress response, growth, reproduction, and disease resistance) for inclusion into a selective breeding program. Ideally the use of genome technologies requires the development of species specific molecular tools and reagents, which has been our recent focus. Molecular genetic resources created at NCCCWA include 1) a 10 X Male rainbow trout bacterial artificial chromosome library constructed from the Swanson (YY) clonal line 2) ~45,000 EST sequences from a normalized cDNA library constructed from brain, gill, liver, kidney, spleen, muscle, and brain tissues and 3) microsatellite markers from multiple origins for mapping on USDA and other reference families. The characterization of these resources will be the focus of this talk.