Originally published as Genetics Published Articles Ahead of Print on September 1, 2006.

Genetics, Vol. 174, 851-861, October 2006, Copyright © 2006
doi:10.1534/genetics.106.059014

A Genetic Linkage Map of the Hermaphrodite Teleost Fish Sparus aurata L.

* Department of Public Health, Comparative Pathology, and Veterinary Hygiene, University of Padova, 35020 Legnaro, Italy, {dagger} Centro de Ciencias de Mar, Universidade do Algarve, 8000-810 Faro, Portugal, {ddagger} Hellenic Center for Marine Research, 71003 Crete, Greece, § Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54006 Thessaloniki, Greece and ** Department of Biology, University of Padova, 35121 Padova, Italy

2 Corresponding author: Department of Public Health, Comparative Pathology, and Veterinary Hygiene, Viale dell'Università 16, Agripolis, University of Padova, I-35020 Legnaro, Italy.
E-mail: luca.bargelloni{at}unipd.it

The gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata L.) is a marine fish of great importance for fisheries and aquaculture. It has also a peculiar sex-determination system, being a protandrous hermaphrodite. Here we report the construction of a first-generation genetic linkage map for S. aurata, based on 204 microsatellite markers. Twenty-six linkage groups (LG) were found. The total map length was 1241.9 cM. The ratio between sex-specific map lengths was 1:1.2 (male:female). Comparison with a preliminary radiation hybrid (RH) map reveals a good concordance, as all markers located in a single LG are located in a single RH group, except for Ad-25 and CId-31. Comparison with the Tetraodon nigroviridis genome revealed a considerable number of evolutionary conserved regions (ECRs) between the two species. The mean size of ECRs was 182 bp (sequence identity 60–90%). Forty-one ECRs have a known chromosomal location in the pufferfish genome. Despite the limited number of anchoring points, significant syntenic relationships were found. The linkage map presented here provides a robust comparative framework for QTL analysis in S. aurata and is a step toward the identification of genetic loci involved both in the determination of economically important traits and in the individual timing of sex reversal.




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