Effect of parental origin on early life history traits of European eel

• Published in: Reproduction in Domestic Animals
• Main Authors: Benini, E., Politis, S. N., Kottmann, J. S., Butts, I. A. E., S?rensen, S. R., Tomkiewicz, J.
• Other Authors: Politis, S.N., Kottmann, J.S., Butts, I.A.E., S?rensen, S.R.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: Anguilla anguilla; fish embryo; larvae; maternity; paternity
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/11585/942954; https://doi.org/10.1111/rda.13219

Establishment of European eel (Anguilla anguilla) hatchery production will rely on selectively bred individuals that produce progeny with the best traits in successive generations. As such, this study used a quantitative genetic breeding design, between four females and nine males (four wild-caught and five cultured), to investigate the effect of paternal origin (wild-caught vs. cultured) and quantify the relative importance of parental effects, including genetic compatibility, on early life history (ELH) performance traits (i.e. fertilization success, embryonic survival at 32hr post-fertilization, hatch success and larval deformities at 2days post-hatch) of European eel. Wild-caught males had higher (56%) spermatocrit values than cultured males (45%), while fertilization success, embryonic survival, hatch success and larval deformities were not significantly impacted by paternal origin. This demonstrates that short-term domestication of male eels does not negatively affect offspring quality and enables the consideration of cultured male broodstock in future breeding programmes. Moreover, paternity significantly explained 9.5% of the variability in embryonic survival, providing further evidence that paternal effects need to be taken into consideration in assisted reproduction protocols. Furthermore, maternity significantly explained 54.8% of the variation for fertilization success, 61.7% for embryonic survival, 88.1% for hatching success and 62.8% for larval deformities, validating that maternity is a major factor influencing these critical ELH traits. At last, the parental interaction explained 12.8% of the variation for fertilization success, 8.3% for embryonic survival, 4.5% for hatch success and 20.5% for larval deformities. Thus, we conclude that eggs of one female can develop more successfully when crossed with a compatible male, highlighting the importance of mate choice for successful propagation of high-quality offspring. Together, this knowledge will improve early offspring performance, leading to ...