Genomic prediction and genotype-by-temperature interaction of sex tendency in European sea bass

Aquaculture Europe, Oceans opportunity, 4-7 October 2021, Madeira, Portugal.-- 2 pages, 1 figure
European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) is an important European aquaculture species. Females, performing better than males with later maturation and larger size, are preferred. Unfortunately, in aquaculture conditions, the sex-ratio is typically biased towards males. Thus, deciphering the sex determinism system and finding routes for controlling the sexratio of this species has been a long-lasting challenge to support sea bass production and selective breeding programmes. A polygenic threshold sex determination system was demonstrated (Vandeputte et al. 2007), where the genetic sex tendency is influenced by larval rearing temperature to determine the phenotypic sex (Piferrer et al, 2005). In this study, we applied two thermal treatments during early larval stage, a low temperature protocol (16°C, LT), known to favour more balanced sex-ratios, and a high temperature masculinizing protocol (21°C, HT). We used genome-wide SNP genotypes to estimate the genetic parameters and genotype-by-temperature interaction of sex tendency in European sea bass
This work was partially supported by the 3S - Seabass Sex and Stress project (n° 4320175237) funded by the French Government and the European Union (EMFF, European Maritime and Fisheries Fund) at the “Appels à projets Innovants” managed by the France Agrimer Office, and the European Union’s 7th Framework Programme under Grant Agreement 652831 (AQUAEXCEL2020, Transnational Access project AE040073)