Animal Molecular Breeding, 2025, Vol.15, No.2, 82-90 http://animalscipublisher.com/index.php/amb 82 Research Insight Open Access Marker-Assisted Selection for Fast-Growth and High-Yield Tilapia Breeds QiongWang1, JinniWu2 1 Center for Tropical Marine Fisheries Research, Hainan Institute of Tropical Agricultural Resources, Sanya, 572025, Hainan, China 2 Aquatic Biology Research Center, Cuixi Academy of Biotechnology, Zhuji, 311800, Zhejiang, China Corresponding author: jinni.wu@cuixi.org Animal Molecular Breeding, 2025, Vol.15, No.2 doi: 10.5376/amb.2025.15.0009 Received: 10 Feb., 2025 Accepted: 15 Mar., 2025 Published: 20 Apr., 2025 Copyright © 2025 Wang and Wu, This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Preferred citation for this article: Wang Q., and Wu J.N., 2025, Marker-assisted selection for fast-growth and high-yield tilapia breeds, Animal Molecular Breeding, 15(2): 82-90 (doi: 10.5376/amb.2025.15.0009) Abstract Tilapia, ranking among the most significant freshwater aquaculture species in the world, demonstrates characteristics of high growth rate and yield that have a direct impact on the economic values and farming efficiency of the industry. The conventional breeding techniques suffer from such shortcomings as lengthy cycles and low selection accuracy in enhancing these advantageous traits. Marker-Assisted Selection (MAS), as an indispensable means of contemporary breeding technology, can become an effective means in improving traits efficiently and accurately. This work systematically evaluates the present state of tilapia genetic resources and genetic foundation of rapid growth and high-yield traits. It also generalizes the typical types of molecular markers and strategies of their application in trait association analysis. Using QTL mapping and candidate gene mining, a set of molecular markers that are highly correlated with target traits were detected, which offered scientific grounds for the application of MAS in actual breeding. It explores the design and performance evaluation of MAS-based breeding procedures in tilapia, focusing on what should be capitalized on when using MAS in conjunction with traditional selection methods. The section will conclude by reviewing challenges and future developmental trends with MAS in aquaculture breeding and provide theoretical and practical references for developing molecular breeding for tilapia to enhance accuracy and efficiency. Keywords Tilapia; Marker-assisted selection (MAS); Rapid growth; High-yield breeding; QTL mapping 1 Introduction Tilapia, particularly those from the genus Oreochromis, are now keystone species in global aquaculture for possessing superior biological and ecological traits. They grow very rapidly, are extremely fecund, and can survive extremely wide conditions of the environment, ranging from salinity to temperature gradients. They are omnivorous, and their diet can be effectively used, with most cases of vegetable diets, which is cheaper and has lower environmental effects (Lal et al., 2024). Tilapias are stressor-resistant and disease-resistant and thus can tolerate intensive farming systems.The final answer is:. The Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus), for example, is well-known to be extremely prolific, tolerant of high density, and able to adapt to all forms of aquaculture systems ranging from extensive ponds to RAS. These characteristics have rendered tilapia a successful aquaculture fish globally, and they have also been called the "aquatic chicken" due to their yield and high acceptability as a food fish (Eze, 2019). Increased global demand for fish protein--resulting from population increase, urbanization, and health-conscious consumer purchasing behavior--brought people's attention to the selection of species mainly attractive for their positive growth characteristics. Although fast-growing and high-yielding species are economically advantageous by making production periods shorter and turnover levels higher for producers, they have better feed conversion ratios, lower production costs, and profits are increased. Production Production programs through genetic improvement on such traits have recorded significant gains. For example, the genetically improved farmed tilapia or GIFT strains have experienced tremendous improvements in their growth performance and yield, thus improving the sustainability and the economically viability of tilapia farming. The principles behind such improvements highlight the necessity for applying nature's own selective breeding process toward optimizing the efficiency of production systems and in meeting the necessary seafood demand needed worldwide (Taipe et al., 2025).
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjQ4ODYzNA==