Inheritance of epigenetic modifications in Nile tilapia (II)
The field of epigenetics concerns the study of phenomena and mechanisms that cause chromosome-bound, heritable changes to gene expression that are not dependent on changes to DNA sequence. Methylation and hydroxymethylation of DNA are epigenetic modifications that are involved in gene regulation and in many cellular and developmental processes like myogenesis but their role in fish is still poorly understood. Nevertheless, based on our publcations on this topic (Konstantinidis et al., 2020; Konstantinidis et al., 2021; Nedoluzhko et al., 2021; Podgorniak et al., 2022), we strongly believe that they play a critical role during normal Nile tilapia development and are affected by the environmental conditions.
Our aim is to investigate the inheritance of both methylation and hydroxymethylation patterns in the early development of Nile tilapia and how they change with embryonic temperature. For this purpose, we have to strip the fish following hormonal induction in order to obtain unfertilized eggs and sperm. Additionally, sperm cryopreservation trials will be conducted and optimized. The 3Rs principles have been addressed by i) using the minimum number of fish, ii) anesthetizing the fish with clove oil to reduce stress, and iii) utilizing the same biological material for multiple molecular analysis.
This knowledge will help us to understand the fundamental processes behind the inheritance of certain characteristics that influence health and growth of fish, which can have a major impact in aquaculture.
A total of 51 Nile tilapia will be used in this experiment.
Our aim is to investigate the inheritance of both methylation and hydroxymethylation patterns in the early development of Nile tilapia and how they change with embryonic temperature. For this purpose, we have to strip the fish following hormonal induction in order to obtain unfertilized eggs and sperm. Additionally, sperm cryopreservation trials will be conducted and optimized. The 3Rs principles have been addressed by i) using the minimum number of fish, ii) anesthetizing the fish with clove oil to reduce stress, and iii) utilizing the same biological material for multiple molecular analysis.
This knowledge will help us to understand the fundamental processes behind the inheritance of certain characteristics that influence health and growth of fish, which can have a major impact in aquaculture.
A total of 51 Nile tilapia will be used in this experiment.