FLT 01 TILAPIA: NILE TILAPIA WITH ENHANCED PRODUCTION TRAITS AND SUSTAINABILITY DERIVED FROM NEW BREEDING TECHNIQUES

Global tilapia production is approaching 6 million tons per year. Tilapia is forecasted to be one of the highest growth aqua-production segments and to expand to 8.7 million tons per year by 2025. New Breeding Techniques, using targeted nucleases, for site-specific introduction of naturally occurring traits with minimal changes to the genome, provide an opportunity to enhance production qualities and sustainability. The Nile tilapia carrying the engineered trait, FLT 01, when bred to homozygosity, show significant improvements in production traits, including greater fillet weight (p<0.0001), fillet yield (62.9%; p<0.0001), loin weight (p<0.0001), and loin yield (120%; p<0.0001), as compared to wild-type fish. FLT 01 tilapia also showed improvements in weight gain (41.5%; p<0.005), specific growth rate (14.2%; p<0.05), and feed conversion rate (FCR; 15.6%; p<0.05), as compared to wild-type fish. No unintended effects on fertility, hatch rate, and behavior have been observed in FLT 01 Tilapia, which have now been bred to the F3 generation. The precision-bred tilapia were developed using gene editing techniques and do not contain any foreign DNA or a new combination of genetic material. Therefore, Argentina's National Advisory Commission on Agricultural Biotechnology (CONABIA) determined that FLT 01 was exempt from GM regulation in Argentina. FLT 01 is believed to be one of the first gene edited food animals to receive a regulatory exemption due to its designation as a non-GMO.