Phenotypic and Genomic Effects of Size-Selective Fisheries
Table of contents
Project description
My research group uses three experimentally established zebrafish selection lines to study the effects of size-selective fishing. As fisheries selection typically operates on body size (i.e., removes the largest individuals), I mimicked this size-selective harvesting pattern when I created the lines. The lines were harvested for five generations and currently we are studying the genomic effects of size-selective harvesting. For that we use whole genome sequencing and methylation sequencing.
After harvesting, the experimental populations were allowed to recover for 10 generations. We are currently studying the recovery at phenotypic and genomic level.
After recovery, we re-harvested the populations for three generations. We look into the rate of phenotypic change during re-harvesting.
In addition, we are interested in the ability of the selection line fish to cope with environmental stress (pollution, thermal, nutritional). We have studied the performance and behavior of fish exposed to stress together with alterations in genomic biomarkers (relative telomere length, rDNA copy number and mtDNA content) and skin microbiota composition.
