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SELECTIVE
BREEDING
PROGRAM FOR THE
ADVANCEMENT
OF
SUSTAINABLE SHELLFISH
AQUACULTURE IN THE
UNITED STATES AND FOR
GLOBAL FOOD SECURITY
TWO GRANTS AWARDED FOR SHELLFISH SELECTIVE BREEDING RESEARCH Southern California is endowed with exceptional resources for developing a sustainable shellfish industry to help meet growing consumer demand and reduce our nation’s dependency on imports. Catalina Sea Ranch’s partnerships with research institutions and the proximity of two hatcheries with its offshore ranch are ideal for researching and developing technologies for producing higher performing shellfish. The goal of Catalina Sea Ranch’s selective breeding venture is aligned with NOAA’s National Shellfish Initiative, which seeks to “increase populations of bivalves in our nation’s coastal waters”. Advanced selective breeding technologies will accelerate and bolster this mutual goal for increasing our nation’s shellfish populations. Catalina Sea Ranch (CSR) is developing a selective breeding program for producing high performing bivalve shellfish. It has teamed with scientists from USC’s Molecular and Computational Biological Sciences Department for innovating and accelerating the science of selective breeding. Molecular biologists bring laboratory-­‐based approaches about the workings of genes, proteins, chromosomes and cells. Computational biologists focus on the design and development of algorithms that analyze DNA, protein sequences and other biological data. USC’s research team, specializing in quantitative genetics and genomics, has developed a technique with fruit flies and chick peas that will be applied for breeding superior shellfish with selective characteristics such as faster growth, greater meat to shell ratio and survivability. The science is based on principles that have been developed over thousands of years with plants and farmed animals, and now accelerated by digital technologies. By understanding the variations in DNA that cause good traits, scientists can skip, or reduce, the expensive and lengthy trial and error of traditional selective breeding for producing a product that has all or most of the desired traits. Thus, the USC research team intends to harness natural genetic variation existing in wild populations with scientific advancements to avoid the controversial creation of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs).
The expertise developed by CSR’s selective breeding program with mussels is transferrable to other broadcast-­‐spawning bivalves (scallops, oysters and clams) for delivering gains by shortening growth cycles, improving yields and increasing uniformity. There is also the potential for breeding shellfish crops for high-­‐value markets requiring consistency in size, shape, coloration, and greater Omega-­‐3 content. Cutting-­‐edge molecular and computational technologies are promising for the advancement of the global shellfish aquaculture industry. 2
CSR was awarded a NOAA Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grant for “Improving Seed Production for Marine Shellfish Aquaculture in the United States”. This Phase I research grant for $95,000 will be expanded to $400,000 for commercialization in Phase II. The project will generate near-­‐term valuable products such as genetic resources in the form of family lines, robust research for the study of genomic selective breeding, and original protocols to harness the crossing potential in mussels. This innovative research project has the potential to provide the foundation for global bivalve broodstock security and viability. The Nuzhdin Lab’s genetic variation-­‐based approaches, combined with predictive models, are being applied in several ongoing projects including breeding improvements of chickpea and genetic mechanisms in manila clams in relation to sex determination. Dr. Nuzhdin oversees USC genome core in the High Performance Computing Center, which is the nation’s fifth fastest academic super-­‐computer with a computational power of 531.6 trillion floating-­‐point calculations per second. CSR has partnered with scientists at USC’s Computational and Molecular Biological Laboratory (“Nuzhdin’s Lab”) to develop a novel family line system of Mediterranean mussels, which will be used to generate the framework for a genetics-­‐based selective breeding protocol. Within this framework, there are three goals for Phase I of the SBIR grant: 1) to establish genetically distinct family lines of mussels focusing on desirable commercial characteristics; 2) investigate genetics of viability and selection; and, 3) determine mutation rates and their impact on domesticated shellfish cultivars. These data will then be used in Phase II to develop genetic based selective breeding protocols for commercialization. This research has the potential for exponentially increasing protein production from the sea with sustainable shellfish aquaculture. Considering the increasing importance for developing sustainable protein sources from the sea, the lack of domestication, and the inability to exploit the most commercially relevant genetic and phenotypic traits in bivalve aquaculture, this project will enhance the viability of the shellfish industry. This project will also help bring bivalve aquaculture into the modern genomics era by dramatically increasing understanding and improving farming best practices for marine food staples.
The project will also assist in securing an expanded source of high quality mussel spat to fill a void in the current industry with regards to availability of warm water adapted species. It will also support the development of pedigreed family lines for a model mussel species that will benefit commercial and scientific efforts. Furthermore, it will remove a significant barrier to technical innovation for the commercialization of farmed marine shellfish. 3
CSR has also partnered with California State University Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) on a research grant that will provide data for breeding higher performing shellfish crops that are more resistant to climate change. CSUDH Professor Dr. Jacqueline Padilla was awarded a $25,000 “Entrepreneurial Joint Venture Matching Grant” to identify climate change restraint genotypes of the farmed Mediterranean mussel. Climate change and ocean acidification represent increasing threats to the shellfish aquaculture industry. One potential strategy to ensure profitable aquaculture in the scope of rapid climate change is to farm mussels with genetic backgrounds (i.e. genotypes) that possess increased resistance toward the impact of climate change. This research project is focused on obtaining environmental, reproductive and molecular data to determine the acclimatization capabilities, tolerance, and transgenerational plasticity of different genetic backgrounds in mussels. With this grant CSR and CSUDH will determine the effect of genotype on the growth and physiology of mussel juveniles from locations having different prevailing environmental regimes. Juvenile mussels, spawned from broodstock taken from the offshore oilrigs in Southern California, will be compared to juvenile mussels spawned from broodstock at Taylor Shellfish in the State of Washington to determine the relative contribution of acclimatization attributed to maternal and genetic effects for growth and survival. Experiments, conducted at CSR’s laboratories located at the Southern California Research Institute and on the Captain Jack Research Vessel, will investigate how thermal tolerance of offspring varies with parental legacies and environmental conditions. These answers will help determine the relative importance of genetic and maternal effects in the stress resistance of offspring under different climate change scenarios. 4
INCREASING THE MUSSEL MARKET WITH ADVANCED SELECTIVE BREEDING TECHNOLOGIES The aquaculture industry lags in genetically based selective breeding programs when compared to terrestrial commercial crops. This perpetuates our nation’s $11 billion dollar seafood deficit, puts U.S. aquaculture entrepreneurs at a disadvantage for success, and increases risk of bivalve crop degradation from climate change. An example of successful selective breeding in bivalves is the multimillion-­‐dollar shellfish improvement program at the Cawthron Institute in New Zealand, which over the past seven years, has resulted in yield gains of up to 20 percent per generation. In 2013, the United States consumed 71 million pounds of mussels worth $105 million. Based upon the FAO charts below, if domestic mussel producers could achieve a 25% improvement with their crops, they would generate an additional $10 million annually and our nation would import nearly 700,000 fewer pounds of mussels from foreign countries. 5
California is the world’s fifth largest supplier of food commodities and has the strongest ocean
economy in the nation with over 840 miles of coastline. It has the potential to augment its landbased agriculture success with offshore aquaculture for increasing economic prosperity and local
food security.
AltaSea, located in the Port of Los Angeles, is ideal for economical logistics and production
facilities to support a major shellfish industry in Southern California. The surplus of empty
containers for backhauling sustainable seafood products to China and other Asian markets would
reduce transportation costs.
Catalina Sea Ranch
820 S Seaside Avenue
Terminal Island, CA 90731
www.catalinasearanch.com