The background for the thesis is that there are possibilities for using genetic markers to supplement traditional selective breeding methods. To do this one first has to find the genes that affect particular traits. In Moen's work it is the chase for disease genes that has been a focus. Moen used QTL-mapping (Quantitative Trait Loci) as a tool to identify the genes he was looking for.
During his work he discovered an area in the DNA of salmon that affects resistance to the serious viral disease ISA (infectious salmon anaemia). He did a similar experiment on tilapia, where he found an area that was coding for tolerance to cold water temperature. Both these findings are valuable because you can upgrade the genetic material considerably by selecting the fish with the right genes, as brood stock. Moen also made a genetic linkage map, the first of its kind for salmon, which tells us how the markers are placed in relation to each other on the chromosomes, and what the genetic distances are between them.
The given subject for Moen's test lecture is: ”Applications of induced genome alterations to aquaculture, with specific emphasis on the production of clonal genomes”.
The committee consists of prof. Roy Danzmann (University of Guelph, Canada), prof. Øystein Lie (GenoMar ASA), and prof. Dag Inge Våge (Institute of Animal and Aquaculture science, IHA). His supervisors have been prof. Sigbjørn Lien (IHA) and Dr. Luis Gomez Raya (University of California). Most of the work has been carried out at AKVAFORSK, but Moen has also had a period at the University of California (Davis).
Thomas Moen is 32 years old and grew up in Lillehammer, Norway. He graduated from the University of Oslo as a cand.scient. in biochemistry in 1999. Since then he has worked in AKVAFORSK, and will continue as a research scientist with Akvaforsk in the Centre of Integrated Genetics (CIGENE).
