Role of Epigenetics in Fisheries and Aquaculture

High-throughput sequencing approaches are immensely used in fisheries research for solving biological questions. This has led to discovering of molecular markers associated with production or performance traits in cultured fish. Recently, interest in epigenetics has surged as it has become clearer that epigenetic mechanisms can provide a measurable link between environment and phenotype. Epigenetics includes genome function alteration without changing DNA sequence, including DNA methylation (cytosine), histone modifications (e.g., lysine and arginine methylation), non-coding RNAs, etc. DNA methylation at cytosine, which forms 5-methylcytosine (5mC), is vital in regulating gene expression and influences various biological processes. Recently developed computational tools allow rapid discovery of methylation sites at a genome-wide scale and demonstrate that environmental factors such as nutrition, stress, and exposure to compounds affect epigenetic gene regulation, which alters their phenotype. In this book chapter, we discussed the importance of epigenetics in aquaculture, methods to detect and the status of aquaculture species.