Exploitation of high-density genetic marker maps in modern fish breeding programs

Norwegian and foreign genomics and comparative mapping projects will soon identify thousands of genes in several fish species, as well as polymorphisms within all these genes. The competitive advantage for Norwegian fish breeding depends however not on be ing the first to develop this knowledge, but being the first to effectively make use of this information. This project aims at cashing in on all this technological opportunity for fish breeding. We will develop methodology that predicts total genetic valu e using high-density maker information. The methodology will predict additive and dominance effects of individual chromosome segments, which are identified by closely linked markers, and which will make direct selection at the DNA level possible. Optimal combinations of chromosome segments can be predicted and selected for using this information. The prediction of total genetic value will be extended towards predicting these effects for several traits simultaneously in order to facilitate the selection fo r complex breeding goals. The methodology will be tested in computer simulations. The implementation of this novel method of selecting at the DNA level in generic fish breeding programs will be optimised.