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Identifying a Major QTL Associated with Salinity Tolerance in Nile Tilapia Using QTL-Seq

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Abstract

Selection of new lines with high salinity tolerance allows for economically feasible production of tilapias in brackish water areas. Mapping QTLs and identifying the markers linked to salinity-tolerant traits are the first steps in the improvement of the tolerance in tilapia through marker-assisted selection techniques. By using QTL-seq strategy and linkage-based analysis, two significant QTL intervals (chrLG4 and chrLG18) on salinity-tolerant traits were firstly identified in the Nile tilapia. Fine mapping with microsatellite and SNP markers suggested a major QTL region that located at 23.0 Mb of chrLG18 and explained 79% of phenotypic variation with a LOD value of 95. Expression analysis indicated that at least 10 genes (e.g., LACTB2, KINH, NCOA2, DIP2C, LARP4B, PEX5R, and KCNJ9) near or within the QTL interval were significantly differentially expressed in intestines, brains, or gills under 10, 15, or 20 ppt challenges. Our findings suggest that QTL-seq can be effectively utilized in QTL mapping of salinity-tolerant traits in fish. The identified major QTL is a promising locus to improve our knowledge on the genetic mechanism of salinity tolerance in tilapia.

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Acknowledgements

We thank two anonymous reviewers for comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31572612); Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong Province, China (2017A030303008); and Modern Agriculture Talents Support Program (2016–2020).

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  1. Xiao Hui Gu and Dan Li Jiang contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Institute of Aquatic Economic Animals and Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory for Aquatic Economic Animals, College of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, People’s Republic of China

    Xiao Hui Gu, Dan Li Jiang, Yan Huang, Bi Jun Li, Chao Hao Chen, Hao Ran Lin & Jun Hong Xia

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  1. Xiao Hui Gu
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Contributions

JHX and HRL contributed to project conception. Experiment and data analysis was conducted by XHG, DLJ, HY, CCH, and BJL. The manuscript was prepared by JHX and DLJ. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jun Hong Xia.

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Supplementary Table S1

The primer list used for genotyping and qRT-PCR analysis. (XLSX 11 kb)

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Gu, X.H., Jiang, D.L., Huang, Y. et al. Identifying a Major QTL Associated with Salinity Tolerance in Nile Tilapia Using QTL-Seq. Mar Biotechnol 20, 98–107 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10126-017-9790-4

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