Staff Reporter Mymensingh :
Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU) researchers, along with other researchers from the country, Japan and Sweden, have successfully completed the first genome sequencing of native Shing fish, a kind of catfish also known as stinging catfish.
The team was led by Professor Dr Taslima Khanam, from the university’s Fisheries Biology and Genetics Department.
Professor Dr. Taslima Khanam said that the research was started with the university’s own funding in 2020, but later the research was completed with the funding of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) from 2022 to 2024. Sequencing and gene identification work was carried out at the University of Tokyo in Japan with about 800 spawn samples from 8 families of native catfish. The genome sequence was completed through bioinformatics analysis using state-of-the-art genome sequencing technology and supercomputers. In a press conference organized to reveal the genome sequence of native catfish and the possible gene identification research that determines male and female fish and its results, Taslima Khanam, The chief researcher of the genome sequence project of native horn fish said this information.
On Wednesday (May 15) at the conference room of the Faculty of Fisheries, the Vice-Chancellor of Bangladesh Agricultural University Professor Dr. Emdadul Haque Chowdhury, Dean of the Faculty of Fisheries Professor Dr. Md. Rafiqul Islam Sardar was present on the press conference. During the presentation of the main speech of the press conference, the main researcher, Professor Dr. Taslima Khanom said, Shing is well known for its nutritional and medicinal benefits and because of these it is traditionally recommended for ailing people and patients recovering from illness. Shing and magur together contribute about 2.52% of total inland fish production of Bangladesh (2020-2021). World wide climate change, natural calamities like flood, extensive and unplanned fishing, destruction of natural habitats are the main reasons for declining this fish species in the nature.
She added Many commercially important fish species show sexual growth dimorphism, where one sex grows faster than the opposite sex (differential growth in male and female). Shing also shows sexual dimorphism where the growth of female Shing is 40-60% higher than the male of similar age. The production of monosex Shing like tilapia is thought to be the best way for the enhancement of commercial production of this fish. Sex-determining gene identification is crucial for successful monosex Shing development and the availability of whole genome sequence is prerequisite for the identification of candidate sex-determining gene.
He said, The results related to the constructed draft genome and sex-determining gene identification were presented in an international conference organized by the Japanese Society of Fisheries Science, 2024. Not only the sex-determining gene but also other commercially important traits like growth, immune and stress related genes etc. can be mined from the newly constructed and high-quality draft genome of Shing. Monosex Shing production will be possible by marker-assisted selection using the results from this study, which will be faster, easier and cheaper technique compared to traditional breeding and hormone treatment.
Prior to this, Professor Taslima started genome sequencing work and sex-determining gene identification involving tilapia in 2013 as a PhD student at the University of Stirling, UK. To date eight research articles were published in reputed international journal related to her field of expertise. The main researcher of this project Professor Dr. Taslima also expressed hope that if she gets adequate infrastructure facilities and research support, she will be able to use her research results to produce monosex horn fish, which will play a groundbreaking role in Bangladesh’s fish production and food security. In addition to this research, he developed 2 fish probiotics from locally collected horn fish and tilapia fish at Bangladesh Agricultural University in 2022, which have yielded promising results in various modern and conventional farming methods.