Aquaculture Genomics: A Case Study with Catfish

Major progress has been made in aquaculture genomics including construction of genetic linkage maps, physical maps, microarrays, and whole genome sequencing. Draft genome sequences are being produced for at least a dozen of aquaculture species including Atlantic salmon, catfish, common carp, grass carp, Japanese flounder, tilapia, Pacific oyster, and shrimps. This article focuses on aquaculture genomics using catfish as a case study to describe progress in genetic linkage mapping, physical mapping, expressed sequence tags, full-length complementary DNAs, microarray platforms, and analysis of genome repeat structures in relation to assembly and annotation of the whole genome sequence. Generation of the whole genome sequence is a historical landmark of catfish research as it opens the real first step of the long march toward genetic enhancement. The research community needs to be focused on aquaculture performance and production traits, take advantage of the unprecedented genome information and technology, and make real progress toward genetic improvements of aquaculture brood stocks.