POLYPLOIDS IN SHELLFISH AQUACULTURE

Polyploids are organisms carrying more than two sets of chromosomes, which is the normal (diploid) condition of most animals.  Humans, for example, are diploid, with each individual inheriting one set of chromosomes from their mother and one from their father.  The shellfish aquaculture industry has embraced the cultivation of triploid shellfish, which have three sets of chromosomes, because of their superior flesh quality, compared to that of diploid shellfish, during the normal reproductive season.  An added benefit, from the point of view of sustainable aquaculture, is that triploids are effectively reproductively sterile, so that triploid crops have little or no genetic interaction with natural populations.  The key to producing triploid shellfish efficiently and effectively is to develop tetraploid male stocks, which, when crossed to a normal diploid female stock, produces all triploid offspring.

Close Menu