Comprehending the genetic architecture of complex traits has many applications in evolution, ecology, conservation biology and plant and animal production systems. Underlying research questions in these fields are diverse species that often have limited genetic information available. In aquaculture, for example, genetic progress has been slow in many species due to a lack in such genetic information. In this study, zebrafish (as a well-studied model species) was used in cross-species transfer to develop genomic resources and identify candidate genes underling growth differentials in dusky kob. Dusky kob is a Sciaenid finfish and an emerging aquaculture species. The zebrafish All Exon Predesigned Probe-set capture protocol was used to enrich fractionated DNA samples from kob, classified as either large or small, before massive parallel sequencing on the Ion Torrent platform. Although vast quantities of sequence data were generated, only about 30% of contigs could be identified as zebrafish homologues. There were numerous species-specific sequences and inconsistent coverage of sequencing products across samples, likely due to non-specific binding of the probe-set as a result of the evolutionary divergence between zebrafish and kob. Nonetheless, more than 55,000 SNPs could be reliably identified and genotyped to the individual level. Using SNP genotypic divergence estimates, between large and small cohorts, a number of candidate genes associated with growth was also identified for future investigation. These findings contribute to the growing body of evidence demonstrating the utility of a cross-species capture approach in the development of important genomic resources for understanding traits of interest in species without reference genomes.

理解复杂性状的遗传结构在进化、生态学、保护生物学和动植物生产系统中有许多应用。这些领域的潜在研究问题是不同的物种，它们的可用遗传信息通常有限。例如，在水产养殖中，由于缺乏此类遗传信息，许多物种的遗传进展缓慢。在这项研究中，斑马鱼（作为一种经过充分研究的模型物种）被用于跨物种转移，以开发基因组资源并确定暗色锦鲤生长差异下的候选基因。Dusky kob 是一种 Sciaenid 有鳍鱼，也是一种新兴的水产养殖物种。斑马鱼 All Exon Predesigned Probe-set 捕获协议用于从 kob 中富集分馏的 DNA 样本，分为大类或小类，在 Ion Torrent 平台上进行大规模并行测序之前。尽管产生了大量的序列数据，但只有大约 30% 的重叠群可以被鉴定为斑马鱼同源物。由于斑马鱼和 kob 之间的进化差异导致探针组的非特异性结合，因此样本中存在大量物种特异性序列和测序产物的不一致覆盖。尽管如此，可以可靠地鉴定出超过 55,000 个 SNP，并将其基因分型到个体水平。使用 SNP 基因型差异估计，在大队列和小队列之间，还确定了许多与生长相关的候选基因以供未来调查。