Genomic evaluation for body weight, length and growth estimates in meagre Argyrosomus regius

Meagre (Argyrosomus regius) is a fast-growing sciaenid species which recently received a rising interest in aquaculture diversification and industry sustainability. The present study illustrates the first complete genomic evaluation of meagre for body weight, length and growth parameters using 810 offspring genotyped with a double-digest RAD sequencing approach. Offspring were assigned to both parents using SNP markers and a QTL associated with growth explaining approximately 3.25 % of the phenotypic variance was found. Using pedigree and genomic relationship matrix, moderate to high heritability estimates along with high genetic/genomic correlations between all studied traits were detected with the exception of the initial body weight. The predicted ability of the breeding values was higher using the genomic than the pedigree relationship matrix for body weight and growth. Present findings provide a better genetic insight of the production traits, as well as evidence that the implementation of the genomic information in breeding programs could be beneficial for the parental assignment as well as for the aquaculture production increase through genetic improvement using marker assisted or genomic selection. •A QTL associated with growth explaining approximately 3.25 % of the phenotypic variance was found.•Moderate to high heritability estimates for the body weight at 770 and 975 DPH were detected.•Moderate to high heritability estimates for the growth were detected.•A higher predicted ability of the breeding values for weight and growth was revealed using the GRM compared to the PRM.