Aquaculture is one of the most rapidly growing sectors in the world today and continues to expand as a sustainable food production system. There is a growing need for alternative research models that reduce reliance on live animals while enabling precise, reproducible and ethical experimentation. The role of fish cell lines is very imperative, especially in the context of sustainable aquaculture management, which aims to prevent and manage biological and environmental risks in aquatic systems. It also serves an as in vitro models for understanding host-pathogen interactions, monitoring aquatic environments for pollutants and pathogens that could impact fisheries, public health and biodiversity.
National Repository of Fish Cell Lines (NRFC), at ICAR-National Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources (NBFGR), Lucknow, India, has the world’s largest fish cell lines collection with 85 accessions, represented by 40 fish species and 1 shrimp-insect hybrid cell line (https://mail.nbfgr.res.in/nrfc/). Top five tissue-wise collections include fin (28 nos.), gill (10), heart (7), eye (6) and spleen (5) tissues. These fish cell lines can be used in toxicology, virology, disease diagnostics, environmental monitoring, functional genomics, and vaccine development studies. By providing access to authenticated and quality-controlled cell lines, the NRFC ensures research reproducibility and accelerates the development of in vitro systems that can simulate real-world aquatic environments. Additionally, the repository contributes to the conservation of aquatic biodiversity by preserving genetic material from threatened or endemic fish species.
NRFC has provided significant inputs to several programs to tackle the threat of aquatic diseases. Identification and isolation of viruses, like TiLV, RSIVD, Cyprinid herpes virus-2, nodavirus etc., using fish cell lines from NRFC has helped to screen infected individuals and chalk out strategies to reduce infection and boost aquaculture production. Cell line repositories may play a vital role in advancing and accelerating in vitro research by providing essential support for scientific studies, disease diagnostics and surveillance efforts.
Keywords: Aquaculture, diagnostics, fish cell line, NBFGR, NRFC, repository.