International Journal of Aquaculture, 2025, Vol.15, No.2, 76-87 http://www.aquapublisher.com/index.php/ija 76 Review Article Open Access Genomic Selection Breeding in Abalone: Progress and Challenges Lingfei Jin1 , Guilin Wang2 1 Institute of Life Science, Jiyang College of Zhejiang A&F University, Zhuji, 311800, Zhejiang, China 2 Center for Tropical Marine Fisheries Research, Hainan Institute of Tropical Agricultural Resources, Sanya, 572025, Hainan, China Corresponding author: lingfei.jin@jicat.org International Journal of Aquaculture, 2025, Vol.15, No.2 doi: 10.5376/ija.2025.15.0009 Received: 01 Mar., 2025 Accepted: 05 Apr., 2025 Published: 15 Apr., 2025 Copyright © 2025 Jin and Wang, 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: Jin L.F., and Wang G.L., 2025, Genomic selection breeding in abalone: progress and challenges, International Journal of Aquaculture, 15(2): 76-87 (doi: 10.5376/ija.2025.15.0009) Abstract Abalone is an important marine aquaculture shellfish in China, and its output accounts for about 90% of the world in recent years. Traditional breeding plays a key role in improving abalone yield and stress resistance, but faces bottlenecks such as slowing growth rate and inbreeding germplasm degradation. This study reviews the genetic basis and relationship between traits of the main economic traits of abalone, the proposal of emerging breeding goals, the accumulation of abalone genomic and omics data resources, the support of high-throughput phenotype and molecular detection technology, the research progress of the application of genome selection in abalone, and the breeding practice cases of industry-university-research cooperation. On this basis, we will explore the combination of cutting-edge technologies such as multi-omics fusion, intelligent algorithms and gene editing with abalone breeding, and look forward to the new models of targeted cultivation and personalized breeding in the future. Comprehensive analysis shows that important progress has been made in abalone genome selection breeding, but there are still challenges in improving the breeding system, accumulating data and integrating new technologies. Looking ahead, we should "hold on the germplasm chips" and drive the creation of abalone varieties through the integration of multi-dimensional technology to help the abalone industry continue to develop at a high-quality level. Keywords Abalone; Economic traits; Genome selection; High-throughput breeding; Multiomic fusion; Breeding model 1 Introduction Abalone (Haliotis) has been the first of the "four major seafood" in China since ancient times due to its high nutritional value and high market price. After decades of development, China has become the world's number one abalone breeding country. But while developing rapidly, the abalone industry also faces many challenges. Due to the long-term self-breeding of germplasm, inbreeding and germplasm degeneration of breeding groups, which are manifested as problems such as miniaturization of individuals, decreased stress resistance, and low production performance. Traditional breeding plays a role in improving the survival rate and growth rate of abalone, but it mainly relies on phenotypic selection, with a long cycle and limited efficiency (Liu et al., 2015). In order to solve the "bottleneck" problem of the abalone industry, it is necessary to use modern biotechnology to accelerate the breeding process. Genome selection technology has triggered a revolution in the field of animal and plant breeding since its introduction in 2001. GS uses a large number of molecular markers across the genome-wide range to predict individual species values, which can significantly improve selection accuracy and genetic progress, and is regarded as an important means of molecular design breeding (Liu et al., 2023). Since 2016, China's aquatic products field has begun to explore GS methods, and has conducted research on varieties such as scallops, shrimps, yellow croaker, flounder, tilapia and abalone and established a GS technology system (Xu, 2024). Especially in abalone breeding, GS is expected to make up for the shortcomings of traditional breeding inefficiency and inability to make early selections for complex traits such as stress resistance. Starting from the 13th Five-Year Plan period, the country has provided key support for abalone genome sequencing and new variety cultivation through special scientific and technological investments such as "Blue Granary". The Ke Caihuan team of Xiamen University has successively cultivated three national new abalone varieties, "Dongyou No. 1", "Xipan Abalone" and "Lüpan Abalone", marking that China's abalone breeding level has ranked among the forefront of the international community.
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