Aquatic and Microbial genetic resources Genetic resources and

Aquatic and Microbial genetic resources Genetic resources and conservation BS Biotechnology (6 th Semester) University of Sargodha

Aquatic genetic resources • Aquatic genetic resources include all genetic resources living in water. • fish, cyclostomes, mussels, decapods, marine mammals, aquatic plants and all other water dwelling organisms that populate marine, coastal or inland waters, or are kept in aquaculture. • Sea-water and freshwater fish, but also crustaceans, mussels and other seafood belong to the most important sources of protein for human consumption worldwide. • As the basis of the fishing industry, they play, at the same time, a major role in socioeconomic terms. Particularly in developing countries local fishing guarantee the income to a large part of coastal communities.

Aquatic genetic resources • The use and exchange of aquatic genetic resources have been crucial elements in helping aquaculture become the fastest growing food producing sector over the past three to four decades • It has been estimated that less than 9% of the current aquatic species being farmed have been the subject of formal genetic improvement programs. • Improvements in aquaculture technology, aquatic animal health/aquatic biosecurity, animal husbandry, nutrition, larval rearing, genetics and breeding have led to a great diversity of farmed aquatic animals. • More aquatic species are being farmed today than ever before: in 1950, countries reported farming 72 species from 34 families; by 2013 production was reported and estimated for nearly 575 species items associated with over 115 families.

Importance of Aquatic genetic Recourses The contribution of aquaculture to world food fish production increased from 3. 9% in 1970 to more than 50% in 2014 with growth expected to continue. Aquatic genetic resources are of key importance for the further genetic improvement of fish strains to achieve sustainable development of aquaculture.

Micro-organism genetic resources • The term of "microorganism" encompasses • • fungi (example gratia mycorrhizae, edible mushrooms, Yeast) microalgae protozoa Bacteria Archaebacteria Mycoplasmas viruses. • Microbes play a critically important role in the cycling of nutrients in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems globally. Marine microbes play a huge role in the cycling of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and other nutrients

Micro-organism genetic resources • In ecosystems, microorganisms are important as symbionts (endophytes, mycorrhizae, and in insect guts), in nitrogen fixation (rhizobia, cyanobacteria-containing lichens), in the biodegradation of dead animal and plant material, and in controlling the size of populations of plants and insects through natural biocontrol. • The World Federation of Culture Collections (WFCC) is the key international coordinating body on the culture collections of microorganisms. This organization, established in 1970, promotes liaison between individuals and organizations responsible for the maintenance and development of culture collections.

Individual culture collections • Service collections: their primary objective is to promote the supply of authenticated cultures to all who request them. These are generally listed in publicly available catalogs. • In-house collections: These are established to meet the requirements of particular organizations, institutions, or individual companies. Collections of this type can be very substantial, but catalogs are not generally available. • Laboratory suppliers: This make available limited numbers of organisms, generally single strains of species, which are commonly used in teaching or research. • Research collections: which are built up by individual scientists or teams as a part of their research programs. Such collections are often unique resources, because they include novel and unusual strains in restricted groups, but long-term storage facilities are rarely adequate and resources permit cultures to be made available only to close colleagues. Research collections are often endangered or lost when individual scientists change positions, retire, or pursue different lines of research.

Use and exchange of agricultural microorganisms Presents a wealth of opportunities for improvement of food and agricultural production systems, and for contributing to energy production and waste management in agriculture. The following areas where use of microorganisms currently plays an important role in agricultural have been identified in the study: (1) Plant growth promotion through soil microorganisms (2) In the understanding and surveillance of microbial plant pathogens (3) Biological control (4) Beneficial symbiosis in the guts of ruminant livestock (5) Production of chemicals of direct benefit to agriculture (6) Workhorses in agro-industrial processes.

Micro-organism genetic resources 1, 120, 000 is a reasonably conservative estimate of the world's microorganism species. With respect to culture collections, overall, only 2% of the species expected to be found are currently preserved in them.