Alexis Fostier (INRA) and Christian Fauvel (IFREMER)

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From a practical point of view, research on reproduction aims to obtain enough eggs of high quality at any time requested by fish production and for any species useful for developing fish farming. Besides, control of sex and of puberty, and gamete preservation for regeneration of high value genotypes are part of the expertise necessary to fish farmers. Several techniques stemming from basic and applied research  have been already developed in fish farms. This is the case for : control of sexual cycle kinetics and timing by temperature and/or photoperiod; induction and/or synchronisation of spawning using synthetic peptides, including the identification of the physiological stages giving appropriate responses; artificial insemination using proper media and procedure;  optimisation of egg incubation; sex control by including a stage of hormonal treatments; sperm cryopreservation. In some species, however, egg development potentialities and their variability due to parental history are still unsatisfactory. Moreover only sperm (and paternal genotype) can be cryopreserved with an acceptable loss of fertility for production purpose. Besides, some techniques like the use of some hormones need to be improved or replaced to fit better the social demand. Research prospective will be discussed for some of these points, to show how the evolution of knowledge and of science methodologies will give opportunities for developing new approaches in reproductive fish biology.   

Alexis Fostier is Research Director at INRA (Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique). Formerly director of the INRA Fish Physiology Laboratory and leader of the team Fish Sexual Differentiation and Oogenesis, he is presently scientific adviser for fish biology and aquaculture by the chief of Hydrobiology and Wildlife Department. Most of his research has been devoted to ovogenesis, sexual differentiation, and steroid biochemistry in fish.

Contact details: INRA, SCRIBE, Campus de Beaulieu, 35042 Rennes Cedex , France.
Tel:+33 223485001 - Fax:+33 223485020 – Email: fostier@beaulieu.rennes.inra.fr

Christian Fauvel  works in the Genetics and Reproduction Team of IFREMER at Palavas-les-Flots (France) that specialises in various fields of genetics and reproductive physiology in marine fish aquaculture.

Contact details: IFREMER: Chemin de Maguelonne, F-34250 Palavas-Les-Flots, France.
Tel:+33 467504106 - Fax:+33 223485020 – Email: cfauvel@ifremer.fr