Aquaculture Research, 2012, 1–14 doi:10.1111/j.1365-2109.2012.03196.

The development of size variation in Dover sole,

Solea solea and turbot, Scophthalmus maximus:
genetic variability between different geographical
and among year class farmed strains

Athanasios Exadactylos1, Emmanouil E Malandrakis1, Panagiota Panagiotaki1

& Audrey J Geffen2
1
Department of Ichthyology and Aquatic Environment, School of Agricultural Sciences, University of Thessaly, Volos,
Greece
2
Department of Fisheries and Marine Biology, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway

Correspondence: A Exadactylos, Department of Ichthyology and Aquatic Environment, School of Agricultural Sciences, University
of Thessaly, Fytokou str., 384 46, Volos, Greece. E-mail: exadact@uth.gr

trends were discerned in turbot. A positive Hetero-

Abstract
Growth and variation in size of turbot and sole lar-
vae originating from different genetic sources were
compared at different stocking densities, including
genetically based information that might lead to a
better knowledge of heterogeneity in cultivated
populations. There was no effect of density on
growth rate in either species. However, between
the two sole batches there was an earlier meta-
morphosis of faster growing fish from Norway. In
sole groups after metamorphosis, variation was
stable and therefore no development of size varia-
tion was observed. There was no density effect on
size variation within turbot batches before, or after
metamorphosis. Spreading rate and growth rate
were positively correlated in sole larvae indicating
that growth of the smaller fish was not equal to
the larger ones, but size variation followed a differ-
ent pattern in turbot. No evidence for either over-
all significant heterozygosity excess, or deficiency
was evidenced in the farmed strains of either spe-
cies. However, significant differences between
farmed populations in terms of genetic variability
(h) were reported, which was rather attributed to
within differentiation than between strains. One
could safely argue that different strains of Dover
sole originated from different genetic sources (fac-
torial analysis). Moreover, when the analysis was
extended to individual loci to assess whether spe-
cific loci had any consistently larger, or smaller
effect on heterozygosity, locus specific significant
zygosity Fitness (growth rate) Correlation (HFC)
suggests that heterozygotes reported enhanced
growth rates compared with homozygous ones in
flatfish larvae, thus special precautions should be
taken into account whenever different genetic
structure patterns emerge, because of various flat-
fish broodstock geographical origin and year class
samples.
Keywords: flatfish, size variation, genetic diver-
sity, hatchery stocks
Introduction
The first and foremost task for any aquacultural
industry is to develop the founder stock of the eco-
nomically important aquaculture species that will
have the genetic ability to use feed and resources
efficiently. Quantitative genetics and applied selec-
tive breeding theory have been the key to the
impressive increase in production efficiency in live-
stock over the last few decades (Pickering 1993).
In spite of its long history, the current aquacul-
tural production is mainly based on the use of
undomesticated fish from natural populations to
regularly refresh the cultivated stocks. Such proto-
cols cannot possibly generate any significant
genetic improvement over time. Despite the
growth in aquaculture production, only a propor-
tion of the current world production tends to focus
on genetically improved marine stocks in the light

© 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd 1