Dynamic interactions between health and growth in salmon: The role of insulin like factor binding proteins

水产养殖是全球增长最快的食品行业，2016年全球养殖鱼类和贝类的消费量超过了野生鱼类。在英国，大西洋鲑鱼水产养殖的经济价值超过10亿英镑，但要提高可持续性和扩张，两个关键挑战是改善鱼类生长和鱼类健康。这两个过程并不独立地起作用，我们最近的结果表明，胰岛素样生长因子途径（特别是IGF结合蛋白）可能在这两个系统之间的串扰中发挥关键作用。该博士将使用最先进的基因编辑方法（CRISPR/cas9）检查体内（大西洋鲑鱼）和体外（鲑鱼细胞培养）的基因功能，以确定在免疫刺激期间IGF系统如何调节能量分配。该项目与提高养殖鱼类产量高度相关，并与国际联盟建立联系，以注释鲑鱼基因组（所有鲑鱼基因组的功能注释，FAASG，https://www.faasg.org/和欧盟H2020项目AQUAFAANG，https://www.aqua-faang.eu/），其中主管和合作伙伴都是关键成员。法国的国际合作伙伴将通过协助细胞培养和免疫功能方面来加强学生。该学生将在阿伯丁的“苏格兰鱼类免疫学研究中心”工作，并定期访问爱丁堡大学罗斯林研究所的合作研究所。学生将有机会在国际合作伙伴实验室（如法国INRAE）接受额外培训。

Aquaculture is the fastest growing food sector globally and during 2016 global consumption of farmed fish and shellfish exceeded that of wild caught fish. In UK Atlantic salmon aquaculture is worth >£1 Billion to the economy, however to improve sustainability and expansion two key challenges are improved fish growth and fish health. These two processes do not act independently and our recent results indicate that the insulin like growth factor pathway (specifically the IGF binding proteins) may play a key role in cross talk between these two systems. This PhD will examine gene function, both in vivo (Atlantic salmon) and in vitro (salmon cell culture) using state of the art gene editing approaches (CRISPR/cas9) to define how energy allocation is regulated by the IGF system during immune stimulation. The project is highly relevant for improving farmed fish production and also links with the international consortium to annotate the salmon genome (Functional Annotation of All salmonid Genomes, FAASG, https://www.faasg.org/ and EU H2020 project AQUAFAANG, https://www.aqua-faang.eu/ ), where both supervisors and partners are key members. An international partner in France will enhance the studentship by assisting with aspects of cell culture and immune function. The student will be based within the "Scottish Fish Immunology Research Centre" at Aberdeen and have regular visits to the partner institute at University of Edinburgh, Roslin Institute. The student will have the opportunity for additional training at the international partner labs for example, INRAE, France.