HUJI

Research Group: Fish Reproduction
Research Application: Broodstock management, fertility and spawning control
Description of research: Research is devoted to exploring the processes leading to both reproduction and growth in fish. Work focuses on the influence of the brain-pituitary-gonad axis on reproduction and how it interacts with all the stages on the fish life cycle. ELISA's have been developed for the measurement of gonadotropins and GH, based on recombinant proteins, as well as calibrated methods for the measurement of estradiol, 11-ketotestosterone and 17alpha, 20beta, dihydroxy-progesterone.
Lead researcher(s): Berta Levavi-Sivan
Contact details: Faculty of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Quality Sciences, Department of Animal Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot. 76100 Israel. Tel (office): +972 8 9489988; Tel (lab): +972 8 9489868; Fax: +972 8 9465763.
Website: HUJI

NOAA, NORTHWEST FISHERIES SCIENCE CENTER

Research Group: Physiology Team (integrative fish biology program)
Research Application: Puberty control, spawning control, broodstock management
Description of research: Research projects include both basic and applied studies on the endocrine control of reproduction in fish, primarily salmon. Main interests are the physiology of gonadotropins, mechanisms of puberty in fish, and how growth and environmental factors influence the age of sexual maturity. Under the captive broodstock research project, research is conducted on how growth at various points in the life cycle influences the age of sexual maturation, fecundity, egg size and gamete viability. The goal of this research is to develop diets and growth regimes that allow for better control of the age of maturation in captively-reared fish. How rearing temperature influences the seasonal timing of spawning is also being investigated, in order to develop methods to advance spawning time in captively reared fish, which are delayed from wild fish. Molecular studies are also being conducted to better understand regulation of hormone receptors, such as gonadotropin-releasing hormone and gonadotropin receptors.
Lead researcher(s): Penny SWANSON
Contact details: NOAA, Northwest Fisheries Science Center, 2725 Montlake Blvd East, Seattle, WA, USA.
Website: http://www.nwfsc.noaa.gov/index.cfm

INSTITUTE OF MARINE RESEARCH (IMR), BERGEN.

Research Application: Puberty regulation.
Description of research: Growth physiology and reproduction in farmed fish species such as Atlantic Salmon, Atlantic Cod and Atlantic halibut. Environmental and endocrine control of reproduction and links to growth. Molecular reproductive endocrinology in salmon, cod and halibut, with focus on gonadotropins and gonadotropin receptors. Cod genome programme. Sex differentiation and sex reversal in cod and halibut.
Lead researcher(s): Geir-Lasse Taranger
Contact details: Havforskningsinstituttet, Postboks 1870 Nordnes, 5817 Bergen.
Website: http://www.imr.no/