Pearl spot farmers in Kerala have for ages endured the drudgery of finding brood stocks in the wild, breeding them in vastly uncontrolled environments and releasing fingerlings into aquaculture ponds only to see the fish barely achieving body weight of 300 to 400 grams in a year.
That may soon be a thing of the past as the Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies (Kufos) prepares to launch a genome editing mission to see if the State fish can revolutionise aquaculture as Genetically Improved Farmed Tilapia (GIFT) did decades ago.
Genome editing will target the genetic makeup of the fish inhibiting faster rate of growth. It would also help enhance breeding and seed production of pearl spots, said Kufos Vice-Chancellor Pradeep Kumar T. , who has completed a year at the helm of the university.
Achieving higher body weight at an enhanced rate will be a great blessing for aqua farmers in the State because pearl spots fetch a premium in the market whereas GIFT does not. Pearl spots are sold in the retail market for about ₹650 to ₹700 a kg while tilapia fetches between ₹250 and ₹300 a kg.
But, GIFT achieves a body weight of 600 to 700 grams in six months compared to 12 months needed for pearl spots to achieve a body weight of 300 to 400 grams.
According to data available for 2020, Kerala produces around 2,000 tonnes of pearl spots annually against the market demand for about 10,000 tonnes.
Fish farmers have frequently called on the government to allow fish farming in at least a portion of paddy fields that lie unutilised in the State, especially in coastal areas where the conditions are good for pearl spots to thrive.
Dr. Pradeep Kumar said DNA sequencing of pearl spots was expected to be available in the public domain soon. The university will tap the knowledge base and leverage the latest technology available for gene editing to achieve the desired results in a shorter time frame.
The university is in talks with the Agharkar Research Institute in Maharashtra. The institute is an autonomous entity under the Department of Science and Technology and is a leader in areas such as biodiversity and genetics.
