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Genome Wide Association Analysis for Resistance to Sea Lice in Atlantic Salmon: Application of a Dense SNP Array

Monday, August 18, 2014: 11:45 AM
Cypress Room (The Westin Bayshore)
Ross D. Houston , The Roslin Institute and R(D)SVS, University of Edinburgh, Midlothian, United Kingdom
Stephen C. Bishop , The Roslin Institute and R(D)SVS, University of Edinburgh, Midlothian, United Kingdom
Derrick R. Guy , Landcatch Natural Selection, Stirling, United Kingdom
Alan E. Tinch , Landcatch Natural Selection, Stirling, United Kingdom
John B. Taggart , Institute of Aquaculture, School of Natural Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling, United Kingdom
James E. Bron , Institute of Aquaculture, School of Natural Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling, United Kingdom
Alison Downing , Edinburgh Genomics, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Michael J. Stear , University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
Karim Gharbi , Edinburgh Genomics, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Alastair Hamilton , Landcatch Natural Selection, Stirling, United Kingdom
Abstract Text:

The salmon louse (Lepeophtheirus salmonis) is an ectoparasitic copepod that is a major threat to the farming of salmonid species. Herein we describe the application of our newly-developed dense SNP array to investigate the genetic basis of resistance to louse infestation. Using a sample of ~600 lice-challenged and genotyped salmon, consistent heritability estimates for lice counts were obtained using pedigree-based and genomic-matrix-based models (h2 = 0.20-0.24). A GWAS suggested that resistance has a polygenic genetic architecture. The most significant SNP (P~10-5) occurred in a gene which has been shown to differ in expression between louse-infected salmon and uninfected controls.

Keywords: Salmon Lice, SNP chip, GWAS

See more of: Breeding in Aquaculture Species: Salmonids
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