Reference genomes of the Chinese perch (Siniperca chuatsi), the Eurasian perch (Perca fluviatilis) and three related fish species of the family Sinipercidae for comparative genomics and marker assisted breeding in aquaculture

• Applicant: Dr.-Ing. Heiner Kuhl
• Subject Area: Animal Breeding, Animal Nutrition, Animal Husbandry ; General Genetics and Functional Genome Biology ; Bioinformatics and Theoretical Biology
• Term: from 2017 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 324050651

Siniperca chuatsi, also known as Mandarin fish or Chinese perch is a highly valuable aquaculture fish, whose production has been constantly growing over the past twenty years in China. The aim of this project is to provide high quality reference genomes of Siniperca chuatsi and three other members of the Sinipercidae family (S. kneri, S. scherzeri and C. whiteheadi). This international project will be complemented by a reference assembly of Perca fluviatilis as a related species of future interest in European aquaculture. These data will be used to perform comparative genomic analysis within Sinipercids/Percids as well as with more distantly related Percomorphaceae species. For this purpose, bioinformatic strategies need to be developed that allow multi-species comparisons which combine chromosomal collinearity, gene- and nucleotide-level genomic analyses. These bioinformatics tools will help to answer biological questions regarding growth, salinity tolerance and sexual differentiation.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: China
• Cooperation Partner: Professor Xu-Fang Liang