Harnessing the Power of Genomics to Secure the Future of Seafood

Abstract

Best use of scientific knowledge is required to maintain the fundamental role of seafood in human nutrition. While it is acknowledged that genomic-based methods allow the collection of powerful data, their value to inform fisheries management, aquaculture, and biosecurity applications remains underestimated. We review genomic applications of relevance to the sustainable management of seafood resources, illustrate the benefits of, and identify barriers to their integration. We conclude that the value of genomic information towards securing the future of seafood does not need to be further demonstrated. Instead, we need immediate efforts to remove structural roadblocks and focus on ways that support integration of genomic-informed methods into management and production practices. We propose solutions to pave the way forward.

Parallel evolution and adaptation to environmental factors in a marine flatfish: Implications for fisheries and aquaculture management of the turbot (Scophthalmus maximus)

“…An improved definition of management units considering both demography and adaptation to environmental variation along the whole distribution range can now be delineated, allowing the future definition of adaptive management units (AMU, Bernatchez et al., 2017). Four main operational units can be defined related to the four main genetic regions identified along the distribution range, but further refinement should be considered within the Atlantic area, where both Norway and Spanish samples showed slight differentiation from the Atlantic core both using all data and outlier loci.…”

Seascape genomics reveals adaptive divergence in a connected and commercially important mollusc, the greenlip abalone (Haliotis laevigata), along a longitudinal environmental gradient

“…Widely distributed species are often found across heterogeneous environments, which can result in patterns of localized adaptive divergence of populations (Nosil, ; Savolainen, Lascoux, & Merilä, ). Although such adaptive clusters may originate at relatively small spatial and temporal scales, they are important in evolutionary and ecological contexts, as well as for biodiversity management (Allendorf, Luikart, & Aitken, ; Bernatchez et al., ; Nielsen, Hemmer‐Hansn, Larsen, & Bekkevold, ; Russello, Kirk, Frazer, & Askey, ). For harvested aquatic species, understanding how organisms adapt and respond to the environment can inform on population monitoring, stock boundaries, restocking and stock enhancement programmes, and fisheries induced evolution (Gonçalves da Silva, Appleyard, & Upston, ; Besnier et al., ; Pavey et al., ; reviewed in Bernatchez et al., ).…”

Recent advances in conservation and population genomics data analysis

“…At this time, conservation and evolutionary geneticists can employ the power of genomic tools to answer questions in conservation that could not be answered using traditional genetics approaches (Allendorf, Hohenlohe, & Luikart, 2010; Bernatchez et al., 2017; Garner et al., 2016; Harrisson, Pavlova, Telonis‐Scott, & Sunnucks, 2014; McMahon, Teeling, & Höglund, 2014; Shafer et al., 2015a, 2015b). Technological and analytical advances now allow us to use many thousands of loci, gene expression, or epigenetics to address basic questions of relevance for conservation, such as identifying loci associated with local adaptation or adaptive potential in species face changing environments (Bernatchez, 2016; Flanagan, Forester, Latch, Aitken, & Hoban, 2017; Harrisson et al., 2014; Hoban et al., 2016; Hoffmann et al., 2015; Jensen, Foll, & Bernatchez, 2016; Le Luyer et al., 2017; Wade et al., 2016).…”