Application of Molecular Methods in Aquaculture and Fishery

Early aquaculture studies were mainly engaged in practicing different culturing systems, primarily focusing on the improvement of fish growth and feed type. The significant advances in molecular biology during the last century greatly influenced the development of genetic research and application of molecular methods in aquaculture and fishery. These methods provided substantial opportunity for increased production efficiency, better product quality and improvement of animal health. Additionally, DNA based methods provided tremendous improvement in species determination, family tracking, pedigree determination of individuals, identification of lineages, identification of markers and loci that are responsible for economically important traits. In this work we pay special attention to the utilization of restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) in aquaculture and fishery as a practical and relatively cheap method for determination of genetic lineages in polymorphic fish species. We also focus on gene expression as an excellent method for understanding physiological processes in fish. Currently, quantitative real-time PCR is one of the most accurate methods for gene expression analysis. It is very precise, sensitive and gives relatively fast results. The growing knowledge in this area has enabled better understanding of fish physiology in aquaculture aiming to achieve economical feasibility and sustainability at the same time.