Association for the Advancement of Animal Breeding and Genetics
Abstract
Advanced animal breeding in aquaculture has reached a tipping point where the commercial implementation of genomic selection to improve productivity and disease resistance is becoming reality. However, the success of practical implementation of genomic selection depends on the specific aquaculture species, production system and available phenotyping and genetic resources. Using the experience learned from commercial programs for pearl oysters and marine shrimp, we highlight current benefits and options in cost-effective high-throughput genotyping and phenotyping technologies for genomic selection applications relevant to aquaculture species, followed by discussion of some of the lessons learnt when dealing with its practical implementation, including what is needed to build adequate genotype resources for non-model species; confounded breeding objective verse trait measurements; complex traits and unknown interactions; multi-family breeding schemes; multi-stage selection schemes, and transition to a genomic selection breeding program incorporating minimisation of inbreeding
