88064 - Genetic and Genomic Applications in Fishery and Aquaculture

Learning outcomes

The student acquires advanced knowledge on the main genetic and genomic applications in aquaculture and fisheries, including qualitative and quantitative traits, crossbreeding, inbreeding, genetic drift, hybridization, selection programs, polyploidy, genomics and cloning. The course also addresses environmental risk, food safety and government regulation of transgenic aquatic organisms, commercial applications of fish biotechnology and future issues in fish genetics, forensics and traceability.

Course contents

The course will have a first methodological part that will introduce the students to high-throughput sequencing technologies, focusing on advantages and limitations of different platforms and methods, and providing a primer on data analysis. Topics: high-throughput sequencing technologies; experimental design for genome sequencing, variant discovery and validation, and RNA-Seq; quality control of raw reads; de novo assembly; read mapping; variant calling; quantification of transcription level; differential transcription; annotation.

The course will then focus on the potential of genetic and genomic approaches, which are increasingly important for understanding evolutionary processes, such as adaptation to the diverse habitats within the marine environment, including fishery-induced evolution. Recent advances in genome technology will be presented and their implementation from genome assembly to comparative and population genomics. Examples will be given on how genetic and genomics tools can allow tackling several challenges to ensure sustainability and profitability of fisheries management and aquaculture production.

Readings/Bibliography

Scientific articles in English provided to the students and illustrated in the frontal lessons lectures.

Teaching methods

Frontal lessons.

Assessment and analysis of case studies in class under the supervision of the teacher for the production of an original and structured report, which provides the critical and comparative evaluation of a specific methodology and its application, chosen by the students based on those proposed during the lectures.

Assessment methods

Evaluation of the report concerning the case study analysis carried out during the course.

Final oral examination. The oral examination will assess the knowledge and critique discussion of the topics presented during the class lectures. The starting point of the oral examination will be the in-depth discussion of one topic chosen by the student amongst those discussed during the class lectures.

Teaching tools

Powerpoint and scientific articles. Discussion in the classroom.

Office hours

See the website of Alessia Cariani