WWW.WAS.ORG • WORLD AQUACULTURE • DECEMBER 2015 21 Biotechnology has had a major impact on aquaculture production in the last decade or two, and continues to grow with a wide range of applications. Innovative technologies, often borrowed from other disciplines, have allowed for enhanced growth rates of farmed species, increased nutritional value of aquafeeds, improved stock health and reduced environmental impacts. The overall management of cultivated species seems to be more than ever dependent on technological advances of increasing sophistication and complexity. To highlight this new technological thinking, a radiation of biological fields under the ‘omics’ suffix has revolutionized biological research. The most common fields under the omics banner are genomics (analysis of the genome structure), transcriptomics (study of RNA transcripts to identify gene expression), proteomics (study of protein structure and function) and metabolomics (analysis of metabolites as signatures of biochemical processes) (Fig. 1). While genomics, transcriptomics and to some extent proteomics have been around for some time in aquaculture research, metabolomics is just starting to be applied with success and great promise to solve bottlenecks in many aspects of aquaculture production. Metabolomics aims to use metabolite profiles to identify biomarkers indicative of physiological responses of living samples such as whole organisms, tissues and cells to environmental or culture conditions. Because metabolites are most sensitive to environmental changes, they provide information about what is actually happening at the metabolic and physiological level. In this manner, unexpected problem or risk areas can be identified for further management action. While the techniques and data analysis of metabolomicsbased research still require considerable expertise, rapid developments in analytical platforms, computational capacity and bioinformatics are making it more possible for general scientists to carry out such research. In the next sections, we provide examples of recent metabolomics research in hatchery production, nutrition and diet, disease and immunology and post-harvest quality control to illustrate the power of this innovative approach. Hatchery Production Larval production of fish and aquatic invertebrates presents a number of biological and technological challenges that continue to hamper growth of aquaculture industries. Indeed, unexpected batch crashes are routinely observed in some hatcheries and the causes are often not identified. Metabolomics can provide a powerful means of identifying problems and potentially could be used as an early warning system in subsequent cultures. To date, the only published study specifically applying metabolomics in hatchery production is that of Young et al. (2015), who investigated intraspecific growth variations in New Zealand Greenshell™ mussel Perna canaliculus larvae (Fig. 2). The METABOLOMICS: An Innovative and Powerful Tool That Will Revolutionize Aquaculture Andrea C. Alfaro and Tim Young FIGURE 1. Diagram of the ‘omics’ cascade showing four major omics along the genotype to phenotype continuum. Genomics uses DNA sequences to identify what can happen to the organism if certain genes are expressed. Transcriptomics focuses on RNA transcripts produced by the genome to identify which genes are actually expressed under a given biological setting. Proteomics looks at proteins to elucidate the structure, function and regulation of biological systems. Metabolomics is the analysis of metabolites as fingerprints of biological processes under a given condition. FIGURE 2. New Zealand Greenshell™ mussel Perna canaliculus larva showing an extended velum and full stomach. Photo credit by Adam Rusk. (CONTINUED ON PAGE 22)
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