A third aquaculture book, Epigenetics in Aquaculture, has been completed by Dr. Hanping Wang and his colleagues and published by Wiley-Blackwell after three years of planning, coordination, and writing. The book contains 20 chapters spanning around 550 pages. The corresponding author and editor is Dr. Hanping Wang, Principal Scientist at the Ohio Center for Aquaculture Research and Development at The Ohio State University South Centers, along with editor Dr. Francesc Piferrer of Spain. Several South Centers staff members made important contributions to the book: Bradford Sherman completed the English editing of all chapters of this book, Sarah Swanson assisted in chapter coordination, and Hong Yao’s book cover design was selected as the front cover by Wiley’s design team after winning a cover design competition.
The concept of “epigenetics” originally referred the effect the environment has on the development of phenotypes, but is now implicated as the set of heritable marks on the genome that can modify gene expression, leading to phenotypic variations without changing the DNA sequence content. Epigenetics is currently considered one of the “hot topics” in biology. Epigenetic modifications or “marks” can be easily identified, and they constitute therapeutic approaches for the treatment of an increasing number of diseases. Thus, there is a lot of research ongoing in the epigenetics of cancer and other diseases. For aquaculture, agriculture, and environment, this has prompted the implementation of epigenetic research, not only in ecology and evolution for its contribution to adaption to new environments, but also into agriculture and livestock for improved food production.
The first comprehensive book of its kind, Epigenetics in Aquaculture, provides an update on state-of-the-art epigenetics in major taxa of aquatic organisms including algae, crustaceans, mollusks, and fish, and how this new knowledge can be applied to increase aquaculture production. It covers both basic and applied aspects on epigenetics related to reproduction, development, growth, nutrition, and disease of aquatic species, for which authors hope will benefit the aquatic scientific community and therefore the aquaculture sector.