As worldwide consumption of fish increases and ocean fish are getting scarce, raising fish under the controlled conditions of aquaculture farms is surpassing production of traditional fisheries.
[Volcani Center Agricultural Research Organization senior researcher Jakob] Biran’s lab, like others around the world, uses cutting-edge molecular scissors to deactivate gene functions considered undesirable or that have “a negative agricultural impact.”Aquaculture-raised fish always have enough food for adequate muscle growth, yet muscle growth suppression still gets activated.
Biran’s lab solved this problem by removing the genetic components of muscle suppressors. As a result, the fish develop more muscle mass.
“And more muscle mass from the same amount of fish increases the food supply,” he says.
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“We created a very good diet with plant-based protein that doesn’t contain fishmeal, but the problem is that the fish don’t want to eat it,” Biran explains.
“We are now working to block the activity of the anorexigenic system in the brain of the fish to make it hungrier. When the fish is really hungry, we can give it food which is less appetizing, and later remove the fishmeal from the diet altogether,” he says.
“This one genetic change alone will pay off for the aquaculture farmers, and hopefully, eventually for the consumers as well.”
