Qiong Wang¹ , Jinni Wu²

1 Center for Tropical Marine Fisheries Research, Hainan Institute of Tropical Agricultural Resources, Sanya, 572025, Hainan, China
2 Aquatic Biology Research Center, Cuixi Academy of Biotechnology, Zhuji, 311800, Zhejiang, China
Author    Correspondence author
Animal Molecular Breeding, 2025, Vol. 15, No. 2   doi: 10.5376/amb.2025.15.0009
Received: 10 Feb., 2025    Accepted: 15 Mar., 2025    Published: 20 Apr., 2025

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Wang Q., and Wu J.N., 2025, Marker-assisted selection for fast-growth and high-yield tilapia breeds, Animal Molecular Breeding, 15(2): 82-90 (doi: 10.5376/amb.2025.15.0009)

Tilapia, ranking among the most significant freshwater aquaculture species in the world, demonstrates characteristics of high growth rate and yield that have a direct impact on the economic values and farming efficiency of the industry. The conventional breeding techniques suffer from such shortcomings as lengthy cycles and low selection accuracy in enhancing these advantageous traits. Marker-Assisted Selection (MAS), as an indispensable means of contemporary breeding technology, can become an effective means in improving traits efficiently and accurately. This work systematically evaluates the present state of tilapia genetic resources and genetic foundation of rapid growth and high-yield traits. It also generalizes the typical types of molecular markers and strategies of their application in trait association analysis. Using QTL mapping and candidate gene mining, a set of molecular markers that are highly correlated with target traits were detected, which offered scientific grounds for the application of MAS in actual breeding. It explores the design and performance evaluation of MAS-based breeding procedures in tilapia, focusing on what should be capitalized on when using MAS in conjunction with traditional selection methods. The section will conclude by reviewing challenges and future developmental trends with MAS in aquaculture breeding and provide theoretical and practical references for developing molecular breeding for tilapia to enhance accuracy and efficiency.

Tilapia; Marker-assisted selection (MAS); Rapid growth; High-yield breeding; QTL mapping