Sex differences in the early life stages of the salmon louse Lepeophtheirus salmonis (Copepoda: Caligidae).

ABSTRACT: Salmon lice are ectoparasites on salmonids and feed on blood, mucus, and skin from their hosts. This causes high annual costs for treatment and control for the aquaculture industry. Salmon lice have a life cycle consisting of eight life stages. Sex determination by eye is only possible from the sixth stage onwards. A molecular sex determination has not been carried out so far, even though few individual sex-linked SNPs have been reported. In the present study, we used known sex-specific SNPs as a basis to sequence the complete sex-specific gene variants and used the sequence information to develop a sex determination assay. This assay could be used to determine the developmental speed of the two sexes already in the earliest life stages. Additionally, we sampled salmon lice in the nauplius

SUBMITTER: Borchel A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8970357 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature