Search

The razor clam, Sinonovacula constricta,is a commercially important bivalve. To date, there have been very limited quantitative genetic studies of this species, especially in different aquaculture environments. This study is the first report of genotype by environment (G × E) interactions for growth traits of razor clams from outdoor pond (OP) and semi-natural environments (SNE). Over a 2-month period, the data for shell length (SL), shell height (SH), shell width (SW), and body weight (BW) of razor clams were recorded for 1 month, and marked as Data 1 and Data 2. Phenotypic data of 1627 individual clams from 17 full-sib families were used for the analysis. The overall heritabilities (h2) for all growth traits were from low to moderate, ranging from 0.127 to 0.230. The h2of SNE was higher than that of OP (0.243–0.423 vs. 0.101–0.285). Heritabilities for growth traits indicated that these traits could be effectively selected in both aquaculture environments. Overall, both phenotypic (rp) and genetic (rg) characteristics showed high positive correlations among the growth traits. However, the rgand rpwere highly variable in OP, ranging from 0.435 to 0.973 and from 0.597 to 0.874, respectively. The rgof SL, SH, SW, and BW between the two aquaculture environments for Data 1 were 0.867, 0.682, 0.651, and 0.844, respectively. The rgranged from 0.274 to 0.619 for Date 2. These results indicated significant G × E interactions among families at different sites. This study therefore provided optimal guidelines to select breeding programs for razor clams reared in different aquaculture environments.

•A rapid change in salinity can affect the survival, metabolism, and immunity of S. constricta.•S constrictaliving in a high-salt environment has a stronger salt tolerance.•S. constrictahas the capacity of resisting to high-salt stress.•Parental S. constrictaderived from a high-salt environment are recommended for breeding salinity resistance.

•Candidate target inland area brackish water (TBW) stress trigger special physiological response of juvenile S. constricta.•The effects of main ionic components from TBW on S. constrictaare relatively independent, or weak joint effect between ions.•The Na+/K+ratio may be the most important limiting factor for aquaculture S. constrictato inland brackish water.•S. constrictahas a great potential in further anti-TBW conditions selective breeding research.