GENETIC ANALYSIS OF INTERSPECIFIC HYBRIDS BETWEEN HALIOTIS DISCUS HANNAI AND H. GIGANTEA  

Pacific abalone (Haliotis discus hannai) is an economically important gastropod species and and accounts for more than 95% of total production of over 100,000 metric tons in 2013 (China Fisheries Bureau 2014). However, the abalone industry is still confronted with great challenges, such as mass mortality occurring in grow-out stage due to its poor resistant to high water temperature in southern China regions, which is the major production area for H. discus hannai in China. From 2003, H. gigantea, which is called Xishi abalone in China, was introduced from Japan for mariculture. H. gigantea has excellent disease resistance and adaptable for warm water. Interspecific hybridization and backcrosses between both species has already become a large-scale practice in abalone industry in China, with the purpose of producing animals that perform better than the parental species. In order to investigate the inheritance and genetic mechanism of interspecific hybridization of these two abalones. A series of studies were conducted including cytogenetic analysis, proteomics analysis and comparision of their morphology.

Key words: Haliotis discus hannai, Haliotis gigantea, Interspecific hybridization