Tuesday 10 Jun 2014 @ 10:10
Technology Strategy Board
Technology Strategy Board
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Salmon with chips on the menu at Landcatch
State-of-the art genetic techniques are putting
a Scottish salmon breeder ahead of competitors around the world in the race to
identify healthier, disease-resistant salmon for
breeding.
As the result of a project backed by the
Technology Strategy Board, Stirling-basedLandcatch Natural
Selection has developed a genomic ‘chip' for
salmon.
The
‘chip' is a glass or plastic slide used to analyse variations in DNA
sequences (known as Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms or SNPs for short).
These act as markers to help scientists locate genes associated with
disease resistance or other desirable traits and select the best fish to breed.
A
single SNP chip can contain the DNA of an entire fish, enabling scientists to
map 20,000 to 30,000 genes, a significant advance from the 25 to 30 genes that
can be identified using standard genetics.
"This is a major breakthrough in genetic services
for salmon. It certainly puts clear water between us and our competitors and
we're already seeing a lot of interest." Neil Manchester, managing
director of Landcatch, said:
"Landcatch is already putting its findings to work
in the fight against sea lice, a parasite that costs the £350m UK salmon
farming industry £34m each year.
"Even before the new chip was complete, we
recognised a relatively weak genetic marker that allowed us to identify
families of salmon that were very susceptible to sea lice. We were able to
remove them from the breeding pool last year for the first
time.
"When the chip is in full use in 2015 we'll be
able to create an even more resistant strain of fish to offer customers - ahead
of anybody else," Neil added.