GENETIC VARIATION FOR CLIMATE CHANGE RESILIENCE IN GROWTH OF ATLANTIC SALMON

The presence genetic by environment interaction (GxE) tells that strains respond differently to changes in environmental/
climate parameters. Existence of such variation may hinder the optimal realization of genetic gain and affects the
competitiveness of aquaculture industry. However, estimates of GxE are lacking for many economically important traits
(Sae-Lim et al, 2016), and need to be assessed to enable optimization of breeding programs towards development of robust 
genetic material for future conditions. Climate changes and increased water temperature may cause higher risk for certain
disease outbreaks in aquaculture (Towers, 2015, Khaw et al., 2019), and consequently selective breeding for better
robustness is of interest. The aim of this work is to assess the genetic variation for climate resilience in growth traits in A.
salmon.