Breeding and Genomics

The CSIRO Applied Breeding team provides the genetics expertise and advice to support a family-based Pacific oyster breeding program run by Australian Seafood Industries (ASI). Through the know-how of lead geneticist, Dr Peter Kube, the program has been extremely successful in breeding animals with increased resistance to a viral disease that threatened the entire Australian […]

What Genes Make Atlantic salmon in Tasmania Enter Puberty? The practise of salmon farming promotes rapid growth in conditions which mean animals may enter maturation at weights below harvest size. When this occurs, the animals can become unsalable due to deterioration in product quality. This created the incentive for our team to explore the genes […]

The Breeding and Genomics group operates a number of breeding programs which seek to select genetically superior animals within a range of species. One of our most important programs focusses on abalone, which in Australia utilises blacklip abalone (Haliotis rubra), greenlip ablone (H laevigata) and their hybrid offspring favoured for their improved growth and production. […]

Transcriptomics for understanding Atlantic salmon biology. The Applied Breeding and Genomics Team group is using transcriptomics to better understand the biology behind economically important traits in Atlantic salmon. Postdoctoral Researcher, Dr Amin Mohamed, recently completed a study that measured gene expression profiles within and between tissues important for a spectrum of life history and production […]

In late 2010, Pacific Oyster Mortality Syndrome (POMS) hit Botany Bay’s Georges River estuary. Within a matter of days, nearly all the area’s cultivated Pacific oysters were dead. Worse was to come. By 2013, POMS had spread to a second NSW estuary – the Hawkesbury River, a prime oyster growing region – where the disease […]

We partnered with Australian prawn farmers to develop a new prawn that is producing record farm yields, leading to increased supplies of top quality, sustainably produced seafood. Our scientists undertook a ten year program of selective breeding in order to develop the prawn now being used by prawn farmers in Australia. Domesticated founder stocks have […]