Fish genome editing breeding in china: status, problems and prospects

Genome editing breeding is a powerful technique in aquaculture organisms. China has made a big progress in genome editing researches and breeding in fish during last 10 years. The present paper is the first systematic review of the status, problems and prospect of fish genome editing breeding in China. Firstly, the authors gave a brief introduction to advantages and disadvantages of three genome editing technologies including Zinc Finger Nucleases(ZFN), Transcription Activator-Like Effector Nucleases(TALEN)and Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats CRISPR-Associated(CRISPR/Cas9). Secondly, the definition and workflow of genome editing breeding in fish was proposed. Thirdly, the authors gave a detail introduction to the progress in genome editing breeding in fish in China. In brief, Chinese scientists have carried out genome editing in several important cultured fish such as tilapia, carp, crucian carp, half-smooth tongue sole, southern catfish et al. Especially, a variety of tilapia with sex-reversed female and with different color were generated by means of TALEN and CRISPR/Cas9 method. Also, dmrt1-mutated F₃ males with fast growth speed similar to females were generated by TALEN method in Chinese tongue sole. Crucian carp and blunt snout bream with less or no inter muscular bones were obtained. These genome edited fish can mature and spawn. The progress has brought China's fish genome editing breeding from following-up in the past to the present coexistence of following, running side-by-side, and even leading in some fish species. Finally, the authors summarized the current shortcomings and problems in fish genome editing breeding and prospected the future development direction of genome editing breeding in China, and proposed research focuses in fish genome editing breeding. The paper will have important role and significance for fish genome editing breeding in China.