International Journal of Molecular Zoology, 2025, Vol.15, No.1, 29-37 http://animalscipublisher.com/index.php/ijmz 29 Research Insight Open Access Advances in Artificial Breeding and Genomic Selection of Channaspp. Yue Zhu, Jinni Wu Aquatic Biology Research Center, Cuixi Academy of Biotechnology, Zhuji, 311800, Zhejiang, China Corresponding author: jinni.wu@cuixi.org International Journal of Molecular Zoology, 2025, Vol.15, No.1 doi: 10.5376/ijmz.2025.15.0004 Received: 25 Dec., 2024 Accepted: 01 Feb., 2025 Published: 17 Feb., 2025 Copyright © 2025 Zhu and Wu, 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. Preferred citation for this article: Zhu Y., and Wu J.N., 2025, Advances in artificial breeding and genomic selection of Channa spp., International Journal of Molecular Zoology, 15(1): 29-37 (doi: 10.5376/ijmz.2025.15.0004) Abstract Channa spp., as the major freshwater aquaculture species of China, is endowed with the virtues of rapid growth, strong anti-stress ability, and stable market demand. The past few years have seen wonderful breeding achievements. Traditional artificial breeding methods like phenotypic selection, family selection, hybrid breeding, and sex control measures have all remained at the core of the buildup of preferred traits, yet genetic bottlenecks remain in control of multifarious characteristics. Based on the advancement of genomics, the Channa reference genome has been continuously updated and enhanced, and population structure analysis, transcriptome databases, and SNP marker development have established a profound platform for molecular breeding. Genomic selection (GS), next-generation molecular breeding technology, has improved predictive power for polygenic traits and brought fresh solutions to multi-trait improvement of growth performance, disease resistance, and sex determination in Channa. This article comprehensively describes the genetic resources, artificial breeding equipment, latest advances in genomic studies, and recent applications of GS in Channa breeding and further elaborates on the key issues and future directions. The objective is to provide theoretical support and technical reference to ensure precision and efficiency of Channaspp. molecular breeding. Keywords Channaspp.; Artificial breeding; Genomic selection (GS); Molecular breeding; Genetic resources 1 Introduction The genus Channa or snakehead fishes comprises a species complex of predatory freshwater fishes that are extensively distributed in Asia, from Iran eastwards to South and Southeast Asia, via China and Russian Far East. About 50 species of this genus have been found, and most of them were endemic to the Mekong River basin, Indian subcontinent, and Southeast Asia. Channa spp. are adapted to low-oxygen environments through their labyrinth organ, allowing facultative air respiration. Some species are terrestrial-locomoting in reality, allowing them to survive seasonal or oxygen-sparse situations. Their food adaptability and wide physiological tolerance make them well-adapted to aquaculture under a range of conditions (Dong et al., 2022; Fernández-González et al., 2024). Channa spp., blotched snakehead (Channa maculata) and northern snakehead (Channa argus), are two of the most valued cultured fish with high market prices in China and Southeast Asia. They exhibit notable sexual dimorphism, and males generally exhibit improved growth performance. Due to the firmer texture of their flesh, high protein content, and medicinal values in traditional Chinese medicine, Channa products are highly sought after by consumers. Increased aquaculture activity has been observed in recent years with support from improved hatchery technology and availability of seeds year-round. Still, more than reliance on wild or low-diversity broodstock is a concern. More emphasis has been laid on the speeding up of breeding efficiency and improvement of characteristics through genomic aid in the form of marker-assisted selection (MAS) and genomic selection (GS) (Cui et al., 2024; Tang et al., 2024). Artificial methods of breeding-phenotypic selection, family selection, hybridization, and sex control-have been piling up traits in aquaculture species for hundreds of centuries. Older methods are beset by inefficiency, long generation intervals, and cannot cope with polygenic traits. Environmental variation and genotype-environment interaction add to the complexity of selection responses. Genomic selection (GS) provides a better alternative through the prediction of breeding values as a function of high-density genome-wide SNP markers. This provides
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