| Summary: | EPICONCEPT Conference, Epigenetics and Periconception Environment, 26-29 September 2016, Giardini Naxos, Italy.-- 1 page The European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) and the turbot (Scophthalmus maximus) are two of the most important species for marine aquaculture in Europe, with a production in 2014 of 157,000 and 72,000 tonnes, respectively. Both species are gonochoristic and while the sea bass has a polygenic sex determination system the turbot has a chromosomal system of the ZW/ZZ type. For different reasons, in both of them there is much interest in knowing about sex determination and differentiation in order to produce monosex all-female stocks. Regarding the sea bass, under farming conditions most fish develop as males, which grow less than females and mature earlier, one third of them precociously during the first year. On the other hand, the turbot exhibits the largest sexual growth dimorphism recorded in farmed fish in Europe. Thus, understanding sex determination and differentiation in these species is essential to bring sex under our control. In this talk, we will first discuss essential aspects of sex determination and differentiation in fish, with particular emphasis on the fishes sex ratio response to temperature. Next, we will discuss our research both in sea bass and turbot. In the sea bass, we will explain how by integrating different lines of evidence we ended up with a change of paradigm as regards to the temperature-resistant fish. We will also show effects of temperature on sex differentiation and gonad gene expression. In the turbot, we will explain the use of a genetic marker to produce WW “superfemales”, which are now being used in the industry. Finally, we will discuss our work on epigenetics and how we try to integrate environmental and genetic information for sea bass broodstock management and juvenile production Peer Reviewed
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