New Method Of Trait Recording In Aquaculture Breeding Based On The Use Of Marker Technology

In aquaculture breeding, it is often useful to collect information from two or more distinct subpopulations but to test them in a mixed population in order to avoid confounding with environmental effects. Each of the subpopulations has an at least partially specific genetic profile, and individuals from the subpopulations commingle and co-develop in the mixed population. It is difficult to conduct individual identification and trait recording when a large number of individuals are involved, when the individuals are small (before tagging weight) and identification of specific individuals is technically difficult. Examples are product evaluation and evaluation of families and inbred lines from hatching onwards. These studies may also be conducted to evaluate the subpopulation's performances under different environmental conditions or experimental treatments. The QTMP (Quantitative Tracing in Mixed Populations) marker technology provides a method and a system that avoids the need to conduct individual identification and individual trait recording in the mixed population. A wide range of applications includes evaluation in plant and aquaculture breeding, breeding by design and the optimization of microbial processes (Van der Steen, 2008). The method and markers were tested using DNA pools of two contributing individuals.