By Dr. Hanping Wang
Aquaculture Program Leader
In 2021, in collaboration with The Ohio State University Department of Animal Sciences, Southern Illinois University and several other international institutions, Ohio Center for Aquaculture Research and Development (OCARD) accomplished six research studies and projects resulting in six manuscripts being submitted.
The program published three peer-reviewed journal articles and two proceedings papers, with three research papers from OCARD winning scientific excellence awards from Benha University in 2021.
“We are halfway through authoring a newbook a titled ‘Epigenetics in Aquaculture.’ We won a national competition for an aquaculture grant and completed/submitted five new grant proposals,” said Dr. Hanping Wang, who leads the Aquaculture program at South Centers. “Our Aquaculture Genetics Laboratory also received the 2021 Dean’s List Award of achievement, recognizing the lab’s safety research operation and management.”]
Refining monosex technology in yellow perch
Hormonal effect on sex differentiation and growth in juvenile: We completed a study on the effects of methyltestosterone (MT) on sex differentiation and growth in juvenile yellow perch. The identification of the labile period of sex determination that is manipulated by MT dosage and age of treatment in this study would be a valuable progression toward optimizing commercially viable regimes for commercial scale production of all-female yellow perch for the aquaculture industry. This paper was published by Fish Physiology and Biochemistry here: doi.org/10.1007/s10695-021-01038-0
The effect of density on sex differentiation, stress, and related gene expression: An experiment was completed to evaluate the effects of density on sex differentiation, sexual dimorphism, stress, and related gene expression.
In this study, we found that stocking density did not influence the sexual determination of yellow perch. However, high density is a chronic stress that has adverse effects on fish wellbeing, growth, survival, expression of stress-related genes, and mobilization of liver reserve. A stocking density of 1,000 fish/m3 could be recommended to reduce stress, increase survival, and provide a better state of wellbeing and growth performance for rearing management of juvenile yellow perch for farmers. This paper is being published by PLoS One.
Proteomic profile and characteristics of skeletal muscle of the fast‑growing perch: We completed a study on comparing skeletal muscle proteomic profiles, histochemical characteristics, and expression levels of myogenic regulatory factors between fast vs. slow-growing yellow perch and identified the proteins that might play a crucial role in muscle growth. The identified proteins could be useful markers of muscle growth to improve the growth performance in yellow perch. The study was published in Scientific Reports in 2021: doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-95817-7.
Refining monosex technology in bluegill
We completed an experiment of the effects of high and low temperature on sex ratio and growth of bluegill sunfish. Much interest has been generated concerning the development of monosex male populations of bluegill due to their rapid growth capacity relative to females. In this study, we found the temperature had significant effects on sex ratios in bluegill, suggesting the interesting possibility of selecting thermo-sensitive genotypes in breeding programs for mostly male populations and controlling sex by monitoring temperature in this species. The manuscript is in preparation for these research results.