Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1893/32963
Appears in Collections:Aquaculture Journal Articles
Peer Review Status: Refereed
Title: Testing of NKA expression by mobile real time PCR is an efficient indicator of smoltification status of farmed Atlantic salmon
Author(s): McGowan, Michael
MacKenzie, Simon
Steiropoulos, Nikos
Weidmann, Manfred
Keywords: Sodium potassium ATPase
Smoltification
ATPase (NKA) α1a mRNA
Salmon
NKA activity
Issue Date: Nov-2021
Date Deposited: 23-Jul-2021
Citation: McGowan M, MacKenzie S, Steiropoulos N & Weidmann M (2021) Testing of NKA expression by mobile real time PCR is an efficient indicator of smoltification status of farmed Atlantic salmon. Aquaculture, 544, Art. No.: 737085. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aquaculture.2021.737085
Abstract: Assessment of seawater readiness of freshwater salmon smolts is a crucial husbandry step with economic implications in salmon aquaculture but current methods rely on delayed centralised enzymic activity measurement. The efficiency of a qRT-PCR assay for sodium potassium ATPase (NKA) α1a mRNA was tested in a 3-year study on 19 hatcheries across Scotland incorporating environmental factors such as temperature and metal contamination. The NKA qRT-PCR assay was transferred to a mobile laboratory and on-site testing was carried out at 3 hatchery sites. For the first two years standard enzymatic and gene expression assays had similar success rates in detecting smoltification (NKA activity 60%, qRT-PCR 57%). In the third year, all but one site were determined as sea water ready by qRT-PCR but only at 4 by enzymatic testing. On site testing with mobile qRT-PCR was successfully performed on four farm sites. Altogether, high sensitivity was shown for the in lab (98.9%, SE 0.24) and mobile (93.43%, SE 0.119) assays when tested using a quantitative RNA standard. Some indication for obscured smoltification assay results due to environmental increased heavy metal contamination was observed. Our results prove it is possible to test a smoltification marker on site and provide results on the day of testing during the smolt period allowing for informed decisions on seawater transfer.
DOI Link: 10.1016/j.aquaculture.2021.737085
Rights: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons CC-BY license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. You are not required to obtain permission to reuse this article.
Licence URL(s): http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Files in This Item:
File Description SizeFormat 
1-s2.0-S0044848621007481-main.pdfFulltext - Published Version1.03 MBAdobe PDFView/Open



This item is protected by original copyright



A file in this item is licensed under a Creative Commons License Creative Commons

Items in the Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.

The metadata of the records in the Repository are available under the CC0 public domain dedication: No Rights Reserved https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

If you believe that any material held in STORRE infringes copyright, please contact library@stir.ac.uk providing details and we will remove the Work from public display in STORRE and investigate your claim.