PHYSIOLOGICAL BASIS OF HYBRID VIGOR AND RESILIENCE

Understanding the genetic and physiological bases of complex traits that are important in shellfish aquaculture has been a long-standing goal of ours.  Hedgecock has had a long-standing collaboration with Professor Donal Manahan of the University of Southern California to research the genetic and physiological basis of hybrid vigor and resilience to environmental stress.  A thorough understanding of basic mechanism could enable the development of biomarkers capable of predicting, during very early life-stages, the performance of shellfish stocks in the field.  Such biomarkers would greatly increase the efficiency of genetic improvement.