Overview of Marine Stock Enhancement, Restocking and Sea Ranching in Ghana

Fish stocks in Ghanaian waters are on the decline. There is therefore the need to rebuild the stocks through marine stock enhancement and restocking. Stock enhancement and restocking are the guarantee routes to revive the stock declining menace of the country. Other benefits will include sustainable employment, increase fishers income, reduce poverty, ensures food security and promote national development. Species to be used for restocking is a major problem since the biology of the existing species is poorly understood. There are certain factors that must be taken into considerations if stock enhancement and restock programmes are to be successful, namely existing fisheries management schemes, socio-economic factors, institutional capacity and aquaculture development. The potential for Ghana to create sustainable, supplemental livelihoods through restocking or stock enhancement appears promising

Recent Studies Toward the Development of Practical Diets for Shrimp and Their Nutritional Requirements

Shrimp is a very important source of protein which is patronized by almost half of the world's population, and hence a very important specie in aquaculture. There is the need for increase in shrimp production worldwide to meet consumer demands. However, shrimp production is hampered by high cost of commercial feeds. Increase in prices of fish oil and fish meal has led to calls for their substitute. This calls for substitute has resulted in researchers studying the nutritional requirement of shrimp. The rationale for this article is to review the literature available on recent studies toward the development of practical diets for shrimps focusing on the nutrients required by different species qualitatively as well as quantitatively. This review highlights on nutrient requirements with respect to growth and feed utilization. Digestibility of nutrients used in shrimp diets is also accounted for in this article

Complete mitochondrial DNA sequence analysis of Bluespotted seabream, Pagrus caeruleostictus (Perciformes: Sparidae)

Pagrus caeruleostictus is a benthopelagic marine species found in tropical regions and a member of the family Sparidae and genus Pagrus. In this article, a mitochondrial DNA sequence by high-throughput technique (HTS) was carried out on muscle of the above species and determined the complete mitogenome. The complete mitochondrial DNA sequence was 16,653 bases pairs in length (GenBank Accession number: MN319701) and comprises of 37 genes; 22 transfer RNA genes, 2 ribosomal RNA genes, 13 protein-coding genes as well as a control region as in a typical vertebrate mitochondrial DNA gene. The phylogenetic analysis showed P. caeruleostictus clustered with the clade of P. auriga

A distinct mitogenome of peanut worm Sipunculus nudus (Sipuncula, Sipunculidae) from Beibu Gulf

Peanut worm, Sipunculus nudus is a cosmopolitan species found in inter-tidal sands. In this article, based on the samples collected from the Beibu Gulf, China, a mitochondrial DNA sequence by Illumina high throughput sequencing, was carried out on muscle and determined the complete mitogenome. This mitogenome of peanut worm is 15,331 base pairs in length (Accession number: MN481531) and comprises of 37 genes as in the typical mitochondrial gene arrangement of Sipunculus. Moreover, the phylogenetic analysis shows that our sample is a novel type in China and has a distantly genetic relationship with the known populations in South China Sea. This mitogenome will serve as the foundation for the molecular genetic studies of peanut worm

Molecular Cloning and Bioinformatics Analysis of araC Gene of Vibrio alginolyticus

[Objective] To clone araC gene of Vibrio alginolyticus HY9901 strain, and analyze bioinformatics. [Methods] the whole genome sequence of Vibrio alginolyticus on GenBank was used to design specific primers. According to the principle of PCR amplification sequence, the target gene araC was amplified, and then the sequence was further analyzed by bioinformatics method to establish the phylogenetic tree of araC gene and its corresponding subunit three-dimensional structure model. [Results] Sequence analysis revealed araC gene is 711 bp and encodes a putative protein of 236 amino acids. The predicted molecular mass of AraCwas 26.92 ku. Using Signal P 4.0 and TMHMM Server 2.0 software for analysis, it was predicted that the AraC protein did not contain a signal peptide or a transmembranous region. The AraC protein had two cAMP and cGMP dependent protein kinase phosphorylation site, five protein kinase C phosphorylation sites, three casein kinase II phosphorylation sites, one prenyl group binding site (CAAX box) and five microbodies C-terminal targeting signal. The predicted results of protein subcellular localization showed that AraC was located in the mitochondria, nucleus and cytoplasm. Its protein is unstable and hydrophilic. The AraC protein is a transcriptional regulatory protein which belongs to HTH_18 superfamily. According to the prediction, secondary structure: a-helix (Alpha helix) accounted for 52.12%, Random coil (31.78%), Extended strand (11.02%), b-fold (Beta turn) accounted for 5.08%. V. alginolyticus, Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Vibrio palustris were clustered together, which implies that the genetic relationship between these three species was the closest