Ž . Aquaculture 204 2002 255–269 www.elsevier.comrlocateraqua-online The potential impact of modern biotechnology on fish aquaculture Philippa Melamed a, ) , Zhiyuan Gong a , Garth Fletcher b , Choy L. Hew a a Department of Biological Sciences, National UniÕersity of Singapore, 10 Kent Ridge Crescent, Singapore 119260, Singapore b Ocean Sciences Center, Memorial UniÕersity of Newfoundland, St John’s, Newfoundland, Canada Abstract The introduction of molecular techniques in addition to the more traditional methods of biotechnology has supplied the resources to increase significantly production in world aquaculture. The ability to identify relevant genes endowing the phenotype of interest has certainly been helped by the ever-expanding databases, which have benefited not only from the various genome projects, but also from contemporary approaches such as the DNA chip, improved 2-D gel resolution and high throughput mass spectrometers. This, combined with improvements in transgenic technolo- gies, has opened up vast possibilities to the aquacultural biotechnologist which include improving growth rates and cost-effectiveness, increasing resistance to pathogens and stressors, improving quality of broodstock and also creating the opportunity of making new or different products through altering their genetic make up. The platform technologies relevant to this field of functional genomics will be discussed in the context of applications beneficial to the field of aquaculture, while examples including those from our own research will be described. q 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Functional genomics; Reproduction; Fish; Growth hormone; Antifreeze; Transgenics; Disease resistance 1. Introduction The wealth of information provided by the various genome projects, and advances in functional genomics and transgenic technologies, have added new resources to the field of biotechnology. The potential application of these new approaches specifically to ) Corresponding author. Tel.: q 65-8741882; fax: q 65-8722013. Ž . E-mail address: dbsmp@nus.edu.sg P. Melamed . 0044-8486r02r$ - see front matter q 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Ž . PII: S0044-8486 01 00838-9