KiSS in Gilthead Seabream

By | April 26, 2022

In 2012, Dr Catarina Cortes Valente de Oliveira from The Centre for Marine Sciences at Algarve University, Portugal carried out a TNA project at the Institute of Aquaculture. The project “Cloning and ontogeny of the KISS system in gilthead sea bream, Sparus aurata” intended to clone the KISS system of genes in gilthead sea bream, and to do further analysis of their expression during larval ontogeny and the reproductive season; thus investigating the role of this system in these key life stages of this species.

Dr Catarina Cortes Valente de Oliveira

Asked about the value of the TNA project, Catarina said “Yes, it has actually been very beneficial to my work, since these experiments were very important for my post doctoral research. Through this programme I had the opportunity to visit a state of the art centre for aquaculture, which had an added value both on a personal and professional basis. I had the opportunity to learn new techniques in the lab, and become familiar with an emerging tool and also to work with a very talented team in my field of work. Dr. HervĂ© Migaud’s group has the skills and the laboratory facilities to perform the experiments. The results obtained have added value for increasing the knowledge on the roles exerted by the KISS system in gilthead sea bream. The cloning of the genes KISS2 and GPR54 in this species allows further research to be done concerning these genes, and the results obtained in fish larvae and in broodstock tissues allows for a better understanding of the role of this system in both ontogeny and reproduction season. As such, the present results will be used to perform further investigation concerning this issue, deepening the available knowledge.”

The findings of the research were published in the Journal of Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cbpa.2019.110624) and is also available from the University of Stirling Research Repository.