Aquaculture America 2024

February 18 - 21, 2024

San Antonio, Texas

PERPETUATION OF ALBINO CHANNEL CATFISH Ictalurus punctatus THROUGH THE USE OF XENOGENESIS

Barrett Chambers , Jacob Al Armanazi, Darshika Hettiarachchi , Kate Pottle, Hamza Dilawar , Misha Soman,  Mei Shang, Baofeng Su, Rex Dunham

 School of Fisheries, Aquaculture, and Aquatic Sciences , Auburn University

Auburn, AL 36849

bkc0028@auburn.edu

 



Albino channel catfish, Ictalurus punctatus, are naturally and externally m arked. If repeated crosses of cloned lines of albinos could be  repeatedly mated  during the spawning season and year after year, a genetically constant control could be utilized for every genetic experiment for perpetuity, and in a communal evaluation the genetic control can be sampled, harvested and the traits recorded without any tagging or DNA analysis .  However, a couple of factors prevent  this powerful methodology from becoming a reality. Albino  channel catfish females have poor reproductive performance. Compounding that limitation is the difficulty of producing clonal lines and the severe inbreeding depression displayed by the homozygous clones limiting their viability.  Xenogenesis is  a potential tool to overcome these obstacles , as it is a form of surrogacy  where the host grows the gonads, thus the breeding value from the donor.  Thus, stem cells from series of albino donors could be introduced to a series of  triploid host, wild-type fry. Multiple sets of stem cells from a single albino are introduced to multiple fry resulting in multiple heterozygous clonal gonads. At least 2 albino xenogenic lines are used and then periodically one fish from each line is mated together . The resulting progeny from each mating should have the  same mix of genes and performance in each repeat mating. Th e end goal is a process  that can be regenerated over multiple generations. To initiate this process, t riploid channel catfish fry were injected with either 80,000 or 100,000 albino stem cells labeled with PKH26 dye from 4 to 6 days post-hatch (DPH). Then at 45 and 90 DPH, growth performances, survival, proliferation, and colonization of donor cells were evaluated. The colonization of donor cells were examined in the recipient through the fluorescence of PKH26 dye, allowing the calculate of the percentage of cell and cluster areas.  Gonads of recipients were extracted and observed under a fluorescent microscope and will be further analyzed to determine the quantity of colonization . All samples, regardless of presence of PKH26 , will be verified with PCR and gel electrophoresis to  confirm xenogenic individuals.  Ultimate success is the production of 100% albino progeny by the xenogenic hosts.