The whole-genome information of an aquaculture species has potential applications in the genomic selection and breeding of fish for sustainable production and improvement in the desirable traits like disease resistance
In a major achievement, the ICAR-Central Institute of Brackishwater Aquaculture, Chennai’s Scientists have sequenced and assembled the whole genome of the Grey Mullet – Mugil cephalus. The whole-genome information of an aquaculture species has potential applications in the genomic selection and breeding of fish for sustainable production and improvement in the desirable traits like disease resistance, growth and development. The Mugil cephalus is commonly distributed across the world and mostly inhabits the inshore sea, estuaries and brackish water areas. The fish is of commercial value to the global fisheries and aquaculture, there is also high demand for mullet roe.
The whole-genome sequence of Mugil cephalus is a major landmark and this very high-quality genome assembly at the contig-level contained 848 contigs with N50 length of 20.15 Mb. At scaffold level, the assembly is 644 Mb in length in 583 scaffolds with N50 of 28.32 Mb. The fish genome contains 27,269 protein-coding genes.
The whole-genome sequence assembly generated for the first time for Mugil cephalus can be used as a reference genome for the family Mugilidae. The high-quality, chromosome-level genome assembly along with the predicted protein sequences would help to gain further insights into desirable traits through gene expression studies. The whole-genome assembly would provide the baseline information needed to implement genetic improvement programmes for this commercially important fish species in future.
The institute’s science team involved in the fish genome assembly were Dr MS Shekhar, Dr Vinaya Kumar Katneni, Dr Ashok Kumar Jangam, Dr Raymond Jani Angel, Dr Krishna Sukumaran and Dr M Kailasam. The Genome Sequencing Project was financially supported by the ICAR-Consortium Research Platform on Genomics and coordinated by Dr Joykrushna Jena, Deputy Director General (Fisheries Science), ICAR.
