AN ESTIMATE OF HERITABILITY FOR DELTA6-DESATURASE GENE EXPRESSION IN ATLANTIC SALMON

摘要

There is a global scarcity of marine oils, leading to reduced content of the highly unsaturated omega-3 fatty acids EPA+DHA in commercial salmon feed, which in turn has effects on the amount of these omega-3 fatty acids in the fillet of Atlantic salmon. In addition to this environmental effect of the feed on the omega-3 content of the fillet, Leaver et al., (2011) found an extremely high heritability of the n-3 long chain polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) composition in Atlantic salmon of 0.77. Thisshows that there is genetic variation between families in production of PUFA. This result can be utilized in selective breeding.