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This project, financed by the European Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Fund as part of the "Fishing and Aquaculuture Innovation" programme, is coordinated by Jean Jacques Lareyre, research director of the MaRé team of the LPGP unit. As part of this project, we will implement an innovative technology for the transfer of germ cells for the production of female monosexual populations, which are preferred in salmon production due to their better growth and meat quality at the end of the breeding cycle. This technology will be tested and used on the sea bass, a major marine species in France. We hope to perpetuate the resource of germ cells by optimizing a cryoconservation method of gonads applied on different fish farms. Finally, we will adapt the existing protocoles for sperm freezing for the cryoconservation of whole volumes of semen with high added-value. Since sperm carry important epigenetic information for the early development of embryos, we will make sure that the germ cell transfer technologies and the cryoconservation of sperm do not change the epigenetic profiles of the sperm produced along with the early development of embryos.

This project is aimed at improving the efficiency of germ cell transfer technologies and high-throughput cryoconservation and making it applicable on the field so that it may be used by fish farms.Tthe generalized use of these technologies should contribute significantly to the competitiveness of the French aquaculture sector.