February 18. 2004The project meeting was by all accounts a very constructive start to exciting and challenging long-term collaborative research efforts within the BIOQUAL partnership. Each partner introduced and highlighted their project-specific areas of expertise, and elaborated on how various lines of research would contribute to the short-term and long-term BIOQUAL goals. This was then integrated into a discussion on the seven major blocks of work envisaged.
As this first meeting of project 5.1. Physiology and genetics of seafood quality traits (BIOQUAL) of RTD 5 pillar 'Seafood and Aquaculture was arranged at short notice, only UGOT, USTAN, DIFRES, NIFA and BIOMAR could participate.The project meeting started by a review and discussion on the overall project objectives that have been formulated as "To establish novel endocrinological, physiological and genetic tools in order to identify quality traits in finfish aquaculture, to apply these to fish fed novel diets, and lay foundations for the establishment of high-throughput protein-array technology for assessing muscle quality and for the production of gene microarrays to aid in broodstock selection based on quality traits".
Further, the meeting considered in depth the first 18-month mission statement, formulated as "During the first 18-months period, the core research activities will be initiated and integrated. Concomitantly, further SEAFOODplus partners will be integrated into the project, in particular within the areas of husbandry (ETHIQUAL). Fish exposed to feed modifications in BIOQUAL will be used to elucidate causal relationships between novel feed and endocrine and physiological quality traits, and these traits will also be correlated to further measures of product quality. Thus, a progressively increased level of SEAFOODplus research integration is envisaged during the project lifetime. The proposed S&T approach is to apply state-of-the-art tools".
Each partner introduced and highlighted their project-specific areas of expertise, and elaborated on how various lines of research would contribute to the short-term and long-term BIOQUAL goals.
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Block 1 Endocrinology of feed intake and flesh quality
Block 2 Genetics of muscle quality traits
Block 3 Immunology of myogenic cell markers
Block 4 Water-soluble feed components for improved flesh quality
Block 5 Natural variation in quality-related genes
Block 6 Heritability of quantitative trait loci for flesh quality
Block 7 Integrated approach to flesh quality traits
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Of these, blocks 1, 2, 4, and 5 will be initiated during the first 18-month project period, and for these, research plans and collaborations were laid down in detail.
The project meeting was by all accounts a very constructive start to exciting and challenging long-term collaborative research efforts within the BIOQUAL partnership.
The next BIOQUAL meeting is planned to take place in Copenhagen in early October 2004.
