Research Group: Domestication in Inland Aquaculture (DAC)
Country: France
Research Application: Spawning control and broodstock management
Description of research: The DAC team is mainly concerned with the control of the reproductive cycle (environmental control, temperature and photoperiod interactions) of new candidate species for aquaculture such as Eurasian perch and pikeperch. The primary objective is to produce models for the determinism of reproductive cycle performance. A second objective is to analyse the effects of domestication.  
Lead researcher(s): Pascal FONTAINE
Contact details: URAFPA, DAC team, 34 rue Sainte Catherine, F-54000 Nancy. Tel: +33 (0)3 83 30 84 47
Website: http://www.urafpa.fr

UNIVERSITY OF STIRLING, INSTITUTE OF AQUACULTURE

Research Group: Genetics and Reproduction
Country: Scotland, UK
Research Application: Puberty control, fertility control, spawning control, broodstock management
Description of research: The major focus of the genetics and reproduction group is on management of broodstock and production of fish as a controllable and sustainable resource. This involves studies of control of maturation and puberty, development and management of selective breeding programmes, mechanisms involved in sex differentiation and gender control, and basic research on important traits and genes. All of these areas combine use of innovative techniques in molecular biology, genomics and proteomics, with whole animal studies of physiology and function, in particular where they are relevant to commercial culture. A major thrust in recent years has been the application of this expertise to questions raised by the ever-expaning interests in new aquaculture species and species diversification, particularly with regards to marine fish. Within the reproduction team more specifically, three main fields are under investigation: reproductive physiology and photoperiodic control of reproduction and growth in marine fish (currently the main focus is on salmon, cod, trout and sea bass), molecular basis of the "photoperiodism" network, focusing on the melatonin (light cascade) and clock gene (chronobiology) systems (currently the main focus is on salmon, tilapia, catfish and cod) and genetic effects on fish performance and welfare (e.g. characterisation of triploid salmon and cod). The work is both scientific in terms of understanding the mechanisms behind the biological effects such as circadian rhythms of melatonin, clock genes, brain-pituitary-gonad axis; and applied in order to improve the production techniques for salmon, trout, sea bass, cod, Nile tilapia and catfish.
Lead researcher(s): Hervé MIGAUD, Andrew DAVIE, John TAYLOR
Contact details: University of Stirling, Institute of Aquaculture, FK94LA Stirling, UK
Website: http://www.aquaculture.stir.ac.uk/rep-gen/research.html

UNIVERSITY OF CADIZ, DEPT OF BIOLOGY, FACULTY OF MARINE & ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Research Group: Fish Neuroendocrinology Group
Country: Spain
Research Application: Puberty control, spawning control, broodstock management
Description of research: Research focuses on the mechanisms underlying the perception of photoperiodic information and its propagation to central endocrine centres controlling reproduction and other rhythmic processes in fish. The characteristics of the pineal organ are analysed in seabass and sole, as well as the interaction of melatonin and pineal efferents with the main endocrine centres, and melatonin mechanisms of action via specific receptors along the brain-pituitary-gonad axis. The effects of light and thermal cycles on the development of the circadian system in sole are also being investigated.
Lead researcher(s): José A. Munoz-Cueto
Contact details: Departamento de Biologia, Facultad de Ciencias del Mar y Ambientales, Universidad de Cadiz, Poligono Rio San Pedro, E-11510-Puerto Real, Cadiz, Spain. Tel: +34 956 016023
Website: http://www.uca.es/dpto/C138