DNA marker technologies and their applications in aquaculture genetics

The development of DNA-based genetic markers has had a revolutionary impact on animal genetics. With DNA markers, it is theoretically possible to observe and exploit genetic variation in the entire genome. Popular genetic markers in the aquaculture community include allozymes, mitochondrial DNA, RFLP, RAPD, AFLP, microsatellite, SNP, and EST markers. The application of DNA markers has allowed rapid progress in aquaculture investigations of genetic variability and inbreeding, parentage assignments, species and strain identification, and the construction of high-resolution genetic linkage maps for aquaculture species. Well-designed studies using these genetic markers will undoubtedly accelerate identification of genes involved in quantitative trait loci (QTL) for marker-assisted selection. In this review, the principles, potential power, requirements, advantages, and disadvantages of the various marker types are discussed, along with their applications in a variety of aquaculture studies. Included are discussions on how to efficiently exploit research progress made from the Human Genome Project and from other model species such as zebrafish for the benefit of aquaculture genomics and aquaculture genetics research. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.