Juan Sui

Heritability of body weight and resistance to ammonia in the Pacific white shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei juveniles

Ammonia, toxic to aquaculture organisms, represents a potential problem in aquaculture systems, and the situation is exacerbated in closed and intensive shrimp farming operations, expecially for Litopenaeus vannamei. Assessing the potential for the genetic improvement of resistance to ammonia in L. vannamei requires knowledge of the genetic parameters of this trait. The heritability of resistance to ammonia was estimated using two descriptors in the present study: the survival time (ST) and the survival status at half lethal time (SS50) for each individual under high ammonia challenge. The heritability of ST and SS50 were low (0.154 4±0.044 6 and 0.147 5±0.040 0, respectively), but they were both significantly different from zero (P<0.01). Moreover, these two estimates were basically the same and showed no significant differences from each other (P>0.05), suggesting that ST and SS50 could be used as suitable indicators for resistance to ammonia. There were also positive phenotypic and genetic correlation between resistance to ammonia and body weight, which means that resistance to ammonia can be enhanced by the improvement of husbandry practices that increase the body weight. The results from the present study suggest that the selection for higher body weight does not have any negative consequences for resistance to ammonia. In addition to quantitative genetics, tools from molecular genetics can be applied to selective breeding programs to improve the efficiency of selection for traits with low heritability.

Estimation of genetic parameters and genotype-by-environment interactions related to acute ammonia stress in Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) juveniles at two different salinity levels.

Regarding the practical farming of Litopenaeus vannamei, the deterioration of water quality from intensive culture systems and environmental pollution is a common but troublesome problem in the cultivation of this species. The toxicities that result from deteriorating water quality, such as that from ammonia stress, have lethal effects on juvenile shrimp and can increase their susceptibility to pathogens. The toxicity of ammonia plays an important role in the frequently high mortality during the early stage on shrimp farms. However, little information is available regarding the genetic parameters of the ammonia tolerance of juveniles in the early stage, but this information is necessary to understand the potential for the genetic improvement of this trait. Considering the euryhalinity of L. vannamei and the fact that low salinity can increase the toxicity of ammonia stress, we estimated the heritability of ammonia tolerance in juveniles in 30‰ (normal) and 5‰ (low) salinity in this study using the survival time (ST) at individual level and the survival status at the half-lethal time (SS50) at the family level. In the normal and low salinity conditions and for the merged data, the heritability estimates of the ST (0.784±0.070, 0.575±0.068, and 0.517±0.058, respectively) and SS50 (0.402±0.061, 0.216±0.050, and 0.264±0.050, respectively) were all significantly greater than zero, which indicates that the ammonia-tolerance of shrimp can be greatly improved. So it might provide an alternative method to reduce mortality, help to enhance resistance to pathogens and reduce the occurrence of infectious diseases. The significant positive genetic correlation between ST and body length suggested that ammonia is more toxic to shrimp in the early stage. The medium-strength genetic correlations of the ST and SS50 between the two environments (0.394±0.097 and 0.377±0.098, respectively) indicate a strong genotype-by-environment (G×E) interaction for ammonia tolerance between the different salinity levels. Therefore, salinity-specific breeding programs for ammonia tolerance in shrimp should be purposefully implemented.

Heterosis and heritability estimates for the survival of the Pacific white shrimp ( Litopenaeus vannamei ) under the commercial scale ponds

The aim of the present study is to detect the potential of the base population from diallel crosses of eight introduced strains of the Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) for improving the yield. Heterosis and heritability were estimated for pond survival at commercial farm conditions for the base population that included 207 full-sib families from a nested mating design by artificial insemination. Among all the hybrids, the heterosis ranged from–11.37% (UA1×UA2) to 20.53% (UA3×SIN) with an average of 0.953%. The results showed that more than half of the hybrids (51.85%) have negative heterosis for survival rate, but most of the hybrids with positive heterosis have high estimates. The high proportion of negative heterosis for survival rate reminders us that the survival trait also should be considered in the crossbreeding program to avoid yield decrease. However, high positive heterosis manifested in most of the hybrids for survival indicates the usefulness of these hybrids for improving the survival to obtain higher yield by crossbreeding in this breeding program. The heritability estimate for pond survival was 0.092±0.043 when genetic groups were included in the pedigree, and it was significantly different from zero (P<0.05). The results from this study also indicated that significant improvement for survival is possible through selection in L. vannamei.

Genetic parameters for cold tolerance and body weight of Chinese fleshy prawn, Fenneropenaeus chinensis

The inability of Fenneropenaeus chinensis to tolerate low temperatures is of major economic concern in temperate climates, as it reduces their growing season and leads to over-winter mortality. In this study, the heritability of body weight under low grow-out temperature and cold tolerance in F. chinensis were first investigated and estimated using 88 ful-sib families, which might provide crucial information in Chinese fleshy prawn breeding programs. The heritability for body weight under suitable and low temperature of F. chinensis were both moderate (0.158 0±0.307 5 and 0.132 0±0.026 9 respectively); the large coefficient of variation (approximately 21%) and moderate estimate of heritability for body weight indicated substantial potential for selective breeding. The heritability estimate for cold tolerance was low (0.019 2±0.023 5), and showed no significant differences from zero (P>0.05). A weak genetic correlation between cold tolerance and body weight was also estimated in the present study, also showing no significant differences from zero (P>0.05). Thus, more research needs to be conducted on the more accurate heritability estimate of cold tolerance and genetic correlations between traits in F. chinensis to further improve the achievement of breeding goals.

Evaluation of genetic parameters for growth and cold tolerance traits in Fenneropenaeus chinensis juveniles

In this study, genetic parameters were obtained for growth and cold tolerance of 99 Fenneropenaeus chinensis juvenile families by means of indoor artificial cooling (starting from 14°C, 2°C/d). A linear mixed model was fitted to estimate variance components using the ASReml software package. Heritabilities estimated for body weight (BW) and body length (BL) of F. chinensis juveniles were 0.078 ± 0.124 and 0.131 ± 0.133, respectively. The estimates of heritability were low in magnitude for both traits. The differences between the heritabilities estimated for the two growth traits were not significant with each other, and the heritabilities were not significantly different from zero (P > 0.05). The phenotypic and genetic correlation coefficients between BW and BL were as high as 0.9408 ± 0.0040 and 0.9562 ± 0.0551, respectively, and both were significantly different from zero (P < 0.01). The heritabilities of temperature at death (TAD) and cooling degree hours (CDH) were 0.265 ± 0.091 and 0.077 ± 0.058, respectively. The heritability estimates for TAD was moderate and significantly different from zero (P < 0.01). The correlation analysis indicated that the phenotypic correlation coefficient between TAD and CDH was -0.5470 ± 0.0174, and the genetic correlation coefficient was -0.6707 ± 0.3635. In the analysis of growth traits and cold tolerance traits, the values of phenotypic correlation coefficient were floating between -0.1055 and 0.1098, both were significantly different from zero (P < 0.05), while the genetic correlation had a larger range (0.0526 ~ 0.9914), and all were not significantly different from zero (P > 0.05). In this study, there was a low correlation between growth and cold tolerance traits, indicating that growth traits and cold tolerance traits should be considered collectively in the breeding program of shrimp.

Heritability of body weight and resistance to ammonia in the Pacific white shri';%߈Zh8LE';%߈Zh8L juveniles

Ammonia, toxic to aquaculture organisms, represents a potential problem in aquaculture systems, and the situation is exacerbated in closed and intensive shrimp farming operations, expecially for Litopenaeus vannamei. Assessing the potential for the genetic improvement of resistance to ammonia in L. vannamei requires knowledge of the genetic parameters of this trait. The heritability of resistance to ammonia was estimated using two descriptors in the present study: the survival time (ST) and the survival status at half lethal time (SS50) for each individual under high ammonia challenge. The heritability of ST and SS50 were low (0.154 4±0.044 6 and 0.147 5±0.040 0, respectively), but they were both significantly different from zero (P<0.01). Moreover, these two estimates were basically the same and showed no significant differences from each other (P>0.05), suggesting that ST and SS50 could be used as suitable indicators for resistance to ammonia. There were also positive phenotypic and genetic correlation between resistance to ammonia and body weight, which means that resistance to ammonia can be enhanced by the improvement of husbandry practices that increase the body weight. The results from the present study suggest that the selection for higher body weight does not have any negative consequences for resistance to ammonia. In addition to quantitative genetics, tools from molecular genetics can be applied to selective breeding programs to improve the efficiency of selection for traits with low heritability.