About the project
The project aims at establishing molecular traceability tools for fish and fisheries products, mainly through development of species-specific genetic markers for all fish and sea food species legally imported and traded in Germany with the ultimate goal to increase transparency of fish trade for consumers, traders and authorities.
A major component of the MARINEFOOD project is the whole genome sequencing and genome-wide SNP assessments of two commercially important fish species: bigeye tuna (Thunnus obesus) and wahoo (Acanthocybium solandri). We expect that through the fully assembled and annotated reference genome of these two species, combined with whole genome low coverage re-sequencing of 40 individuals for each species, characteristic Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) markers distributed throughout the genomes will be identified which can serve as effective genetic markers to discriminate stocks and populations of these highly mobile epipelagic fishes.