The world's first case of crucian carp without intermuscular spines is introduced

Crucian carp is tender and delicious, but too many small spines affect food and processing. Today, a crucian carp with small fine spines removed is available at the Heilongjiang Fisheries Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences! On January 14, an expert group led by Academician Gui Jianfang of the Institute of Hydrobiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Academician Chen Songlin of the Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences conducted on-site acceptance of the new mesophilic carp germplasm created by the innovation team of carp genomics using gene editing technology. Intermuscular spines are those small spines that make crucian carp deterred, and this kind of intermuscular crucian carp allows people to eat fish without the fear of "stuck throat" with fine spines. After investigation, this is the world's first case of carp without intermuscular spine gene editing new germplasm.

As early as the "Tenth Five-Year Plan" period, Sun Xiaowen, chief scientist of Heilongjiang Fisheries Research Institute, put forward the major problem of "intermuscular thorn is affecting the quality improvement of carp fish", and in 2009, the research topic of carp intermuscular spine was set up in the agricultural industry special project, and since then the action of tackling the problem of fish intermuscular thorn has been officially launched. Later, under the guidance of researcher Sun Xiaowen, with the funding of the national key research and development program, the "863" plan, the agricultural industry special project, the basic scientific research business fee of the institute and other projects, the team's professional leader Kuang Youyi led the members of the research group to start a long research on the development mechanism of fish intermuscular spines.

The team identified a key gene that regulates the development of intermuscular spines from more than 1600 candidate genes related to the development of intermuscular thorns, and further used the established intermuscular crucian carp gene editing technology to construct a colony of crucian carp F0 intermuscular spine mutations in 2019, an F1 generation of intermuscular crucian carp mutants in 2020, and a normally developed heritable population of F2 generation of musculospine crucian carp in 2021. Crucian carp without muscle grows well and develops normal morphologically, with no difference from normal crucian carp.

The expert group believes that the important progress made by the Heilongjiang Fisheries Research Institute in the research of "new germplasm creation of carp without muscle spiny carp" provides a model for the genetic improvement of fish intermuscular thorn traits, is a major breakthrough in the quality improvement of carp, and is expected to solve the problem of "stuck throat" of eating bulk freshwater fish, and will also have a profound impact on the final consumption form of aquatic products in the future. The expert group hopes that the team will continue to carry out basic research, improve the new germplasm of the non-muscled crucian carp and form a large-scale industrial production, so that eating fish without picking thorns will truly become a reality. (Reporter Li Liyun, correspondent Li Shaopeng, Xu Huan)

Source: Science and Technology Daily