QTL Detection for Albinism-Related Loci in Chinese Tongue Sole(Cynoglossus semilaevis) QTL Detection for Albinism-Related Loci in Chinese Tongue Sole(Cynoglossus semilaevis)

The Chinese tongue sole(Cynoglossus semilaevis) is widely cultured in the coastal region of East Asia and has excellent economic value. However, the high albino rate of the breeding population has caused a significant loss to the aquaculture industry. To study the molecular mechanism of albinism, the present study used an albino Chinese tongue sole family to construct three simple sequence repeat(SSR) linkage groups, and draft a preliminary linkage map related to albinism. After albinism-related loci mapping, 18 albinism-related loci were detected under two models(containing 2407 genes) compared to the Chinese tongue sole genome. One of these loci, the tyrosinase related protein(tyrp2), which has been reported previously as an important gene regulating both eumelanin and phaeomelanin levels, was indicated to be the possible cause of albinism. Thirty-five Gene Ontology(GO) terms and 14 Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genome pathways were annotated via bioinformatic analyses. One GO term with protein tyrosine kinase activity, which contained 10 genes, was previously suggested to affect fish albinism. These results establish a foundation for further in-depth study of albinism in Chinese tongue sole