In Search of a Target Gene for a Desirable Phenotype in Aquaculture: Genome Editing of Cyprinidae and Salmonidae Species.

Aquaculture supplies the world food market with a significant amount of valuable protein. Highly productive aquaculture fishes can be derived by utilizing genome-editing methods, and the main problem is to choose a target gene to obtain the desirable phenotype. This paper presents a review of the studies of genome editing for genes controlling body development, growth, pigmentation and sex determination in five key aquaculture Salmonidae and Cyprinidae species, such as rainbow trout ( Onchorhynchus mykiss ), Atlantic salmon ( Salmo salar ), common carp ( Cyprinus carpio ), goldfish ( Carassius auratus ), Gibel carp ( Carassius gibelio ) and the model fish zebrafish ( Danio rerio ). Among the genes studied, the most applicable for aquaculture are mstnba , pomc , and acvr2 , the knockout of which leads to enhanced muscle growth; runx2b , mutants of which do not form bones in myoseptae; lepr , whose lack of function makes fish fast-growing; fads2 , Δ6abc/5Mt , and Δ6bcMt , affecting the composition of fatty acids in fish meat; dnd mettl3 , and wnt4a , mutants of which are sterile; and disease-susceptibility genes prmt7 , gab3 , gcJAM-A , and cxcr3.2 . Schemes for obtaining common carp populations consisting of only large females are promising for use in aquaculture. The immobilized and uncolored zebrafish line is of interest for laboratory use.