Meat producing animals in agriculture are the result of ongoing genetic selection for desirable characteristics related to growth rates, feed efficiencies, product yield, and quality. Skeletal muscle is the valuable end product and is a major contributor to an animal’s mass, energy metabolism, and overall health. Considering aquaculture is relatively new to the agriculture sector, our knowledge of growth processes in other meat producing species will serve as a platform for advancing our understanding of finfish muscle growth physiology.

Patterns of fish muscle growth originate at the cellular level and are influenced by genetic and environmental factors. Variation in muscle growth exists between fish species, as well as between individual fish of the same species. Cellular growth mechanisms in muscle are significantly influenced by factors like developmental stage, exercise, nutrition, temperature, light duration, and salinity. Understanding how these factors interact with genetic determinants to modify muscle growth patterns in fish will be important to optimizing muscle growth and sustainable practices in aquaculture.

We will evaluate expression levels of genes known to control muscle growth in vertebrates. Our goal is to identify a physiological marker of enhanced growth in sablefish that can be applied to broodstock selection strategies and future nutrition and rearing condition experiments. Sablefish is a model marine coldwater species from the north Pacific Ocean with commercial aquaculture potential. The immediate application of a growth marker would contribute to achieving faster growing sablefish strains for more efficient aquaculture production. Sablefish Dimorphic Muscle Growth.