The pikeperch (Sander lucioperca) is a fresh and brackish water Percid fish natively inhabiting the northern hemisphere. This species is emerging as a promising candidate for intensive aquaculture production in Europe. Specific traits like cannibalism, growth rate and meat quality require genomics based understanding, for an optimal husbandry and domestication process. Still, the aquaculture community is lacking an annotated genome sequence to facilitate genome-wide studies on pikeperch. Here, we report the first highly contiguous draft genome assembly of Sander lucioperca. In total, 413 and 66 giga base pairs of DNA sequencing raw data were generated with the Illumina platform and PacBio Sequel System, respectively. The PacBio data were assembled into a final assembly size of ~900 Mb covering 89% of the 1,014 Mb estimated genome size. The draft genome consisted of 1966 contigs ordered into 1,313 scaffolds. The contig and scaffold N50 lengths are 3.0 Mb and 4.9 Mb, respectively. The identified repetitive structures accounted for 39% of the genome. We utilized homologies to other ray-finned fishes, and ab initio gene prediction methods to predict 21,249 protein-coding genes in the Sander lucioperca genome, of which 88% were functionally annotated by either sequence homology or protein domains and signatures search. The assembled genome spans 97.6% and 96.3% of Vertebrate and Actinopterygii single-copy orthologs, respectively. The outstanding mapping rate (99.9%) of genomic PE-reads on the assembly suggests an accurate and nearly complete genome reconstruction. This draft genome sequence is the first genomic resource for this promising aquaculture species. It will provide an impetus for genomic-based breeding studies targeting phenotypic and performance traits of captive pikeperch.

Pikeperch (Sander lucioperca) is a fish species with growing economic significance in the aquaculture industry. However, successful positioning of pikeperch in large-scale aquaculture requires advances in our understanding of its genome organization. In this study, an ultra-high density linkage map for pikeperch comprising 24 linkage groups and 1,023,625 single nucleotide polymorphisms markers was constructed after genotyping whole-genome sequencing data from 11 broodstock and 363 progeny, belonging to 6 full-sib families. The sex-specific linkage maps spanned a total of 2985.16 cM in females and 2540.47 cM in males with an average inter-marker distance of 0.0030 and 0.0026 cM, respectively. The sex-averaged map spanned a total of 2725.53 cM with an average inter-marker distance of 0.0028 cM. Furthermore, the sex-averaged map was used for improving the contiguity and accuracy of the current pikeperch genome assembly. Based on 723,360 markers, 706 contigs were anchored and oriented into 24 pseudomolecules, covering a total of 896.48 Mb and accounting for 99.47% of the assembled genome size. The overall contiguity of the assembly improved with a scaffold N50 length of 41.06 Mb. Finally, an updated annotation of protein-coding genes and repetitive elements of the enhanced genome assembly is provided at NCBI.

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of inbreeding on body weight (BW) at harvest size (130 d of age) and grow-out survival rate (SR) (65-130 d of age) in a nucleus breeding population of Penaeus (Litopenaeus) vannamei. An experiment was designed to generate inbred families the product of sibling matings, as well as groups of families with different inbreeding coefficients in three successive generations. The families came from a broodstock line selected for growth and survival. Inbreeding coefficients varied between 0 and 60.4%. A total of 16,361 shrimp from 320 families were produced. Data were analyzed using mixed linear model methodology and restricted maximum likelihood methods. Estimated change on BW per 10% increase on the inbreeding coefficient was −2.19 ± 0.41% (P <0.001) relative to the mean of non-inbred shrimp predicted from the model (19.63 g). Regression coefficient for grow-out SR on inbreeding was not significant. Estimated change in SR per 10% increase on the inbreeding coefficient was −0.009 ± 0.006% (P = 0.108) relative to the mean of non-inbred shrimp predicted from the model (81.72%). It is important to control inbreeding level in breeding programs.

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Pikeperch (Sander lucioperca) has emerged as a high value species to the aquaculture industry. However, its farming techniques are at an early stage and its production is often performed without a selective breeding program, potentially leading to high levels of inbreeding. In this study, we identified and characterized autozygosity based on genome-wide runs of homozygosity (ROH) on a sample of parental and offspring individuals, determined effective population size (Ne), and assessed relatedness among parental individuals. A mean of 2,235 ± 526 and 1,841 ± 363 ROH segments per individual, resulting in a mean inbreeding coefficient of 0.33 ± 0.06 and 0.25 ± 0.06 were estimated for the progeny and parents, respectively. Ne was about 12 until four generations ago and at most 106 for 63 generations in the past, with varying genetic relatedness amongst the parents. This study shows the importance of genomic information when family relationships are unknown and the need of selective breeding programs for reproductive management decisions in the aquaculture industry.

Promising efforts are ongoing to extend genomics resources for pikeperch (Sander lucioperca), a species of high interest for the sustainable European aquaculture sector. Although previous work, including reference genome assembly, transcriptome sequence, and single-nucleotide polymorphism genotyping, added a great wealth of genomic tools, a comprehensive characterization of gene expression across major tissues in pikeperch still remains an unmet research need. Here, we used deep RNA-Sequencing of ten vital tissues collected in eight animals to build a high-confident and annotated trancriptome atlas, to detect the tissue-specificity of gene expression and co-expression network modules, and to investigate genome-wide selective signatures in the Percidae fish family. Pathway enrichment and protein–protein interaction network analyses were performed to characterize the unique biological functions of tissue-specific genes and co-expression modules. We detected strong functional correlations and similarities of tissues with respect to their expression patterns—but also significant differences in the complexity and composition of their transcriptomes. Moreover, functional analyses revealed that tissue-specific genes essentially play key roles in the specific physiological functions of the respective tissues. Identified network modules were also functionally coherent with tissues’ main physiological functions. Although tissue specificity was not associated with positive selection, several genes under selection were found to be involved in hypoxia, immunity, and gene regulation processes, that are crucial for fish adaption and welfare. Overall, these new resources and insights will not only enhance the understanding of mechanisms of organ biology in pikeperch, but also complement the amount of genomic resources for this commercial species.

Selective breeding can significantly improve the establishment of sustainable and profitable aquaculture fish farming. For rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), one of the main aquaculture coldwater species in Europe, a variety of selected hatchery strains are commercially available. In this study, we investigated the genetic variation between the local Born strain, selected for survival, and the commercially available Silver Steelhead strain, selected for growth. We sequenced the transcriptome of six tissues (gills, head kidney, heart, liver, spleen, and white muscle) from eight healthy individuals per strain, using RNA-seq technology to identify strain-specific gene-expression patterns and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). In total, 1760 annotated genes were differentially expressed across all tissues. Pathway analysis assigned them to different gene networks. We also identified a set of SNPs, which are heterozygous for one of the two breeding strains: 1229 of which represent polymorphisms over all tissues and individuals. Our data indicate a strong genetic differentiation between Born and Silver Steelhead trout, despite the relatively short time of evolutionary separation of the two breeding strains. The results most likely reflect their specifically adapted genotypes and might contribute to the understanding of differences regarding their robustness toward high stress and pathogenic challenge described in former studies.