The characterisation of genes/genomic regions and proteins implicated in fundamental biological processes is one of the principal objectives of worldwide scientific investigation at the current moment. Precisely, the objectives, 3.1, 3.2, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7. y 3.8 of the Spanish National Plan for Biotechnology and 6, 7 y 8 of the Spanish National Plan for Agroalimentary resources and technology explicitly define the need to identify and characterise genes and regulatory genic networks of potential use, the development of animal models and the development and ‘fine tuning’ of vaccines.
An overall ‘modus operandi’ can be summarised to the application of ´omics and physiology` to explain the molecular architecture of key physiological/immunological processes. Functional genomics technologies integrated into a ‘classical physiology background’ forms the central platform for current and future research, mainly in silico cloning, EST analysis and transcriptomic (microarray) analysis in parallel to detailed functional studies on gene expression and cell biology in in vitro and in vivo experimental models form the main axis of laboratory analysis and expertise. In parallel, structural genomic analysis will permit the identification of QTLs and mapping candidate genes, to be applied in marked assisted selection programs with industry. This clearly 'opens the door' toward directed manipulation of such processes to increase and improve all relevant processes in modern intensive aquaculture systems. It is necessary to point out that genomic approaches are deliberately not hypothesis-limited and are instead discovery-driven. When the powerful molecular tools of genomics are applied to biological questions such as the different aspects of fish biology subject of this proposal, discoveries will almost certainly be made that will generate new hypotheses and necessitate a reworking of existing models.