Genetics
Having detailed knowledge on the genomes of aquatic hosts, their pathogens and their co-evolution, enables improved surveillance and disease control strategies. A genetic map of Atlantic salmon inluding expressed sequence tag's has been developed through funding by the EU (SalMap, SalGene). A national FUGE-project (The Salmon Genome Project) has made an Atlantic salmon BAC-library available for fine mapping of specific regions where a web-site including an est-database will be made available to the public (SGP web-site). Understanding how the immune system of Atlantic salmon interacts with pathogens is the focus of a national FUGE-project joining forces from Tromsø, Bergen and Oslo(FUGE/NFR "Expression and function of immune genes in Atlantic salmon"). EU-sponsored projects have focused on linking specific factors of the immune system to resistance towards infectious diseases ("Evaluation of MHC genes as Quatitative Traits Loci (QTLs) for disease resistance in fish") and identified strong associations between both viral (infectious salmon anaemia virus) and bacterial(Aeromonas salmonicida) patogens. Further studies on the biological explanation for these results are ongoing (PeptidEx) . |
Genetic research is applied to both pathogens as well as aquatic hosts
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