Functional Genomic Characterization of Viral Nervous Necrosis Disease resistance in farmed European seabass

In this study, we aimed to functionally characterize the genomic background of viral nervous necrosis resistance in farmed European seabass. Offspring from a cross of 25 males and 25 females were challenged with nervous necrosis virus and their response to the infection was recorded as days to death or binary survival (dead or alive) for about 29 days. A total of 1390 European seabass fish entered the challenge and were genotyped. These genotypes were further utilized in a targeted expression quantitative loci identification for the candidate genes located within the genomic region identified as associated with nervous necrosis resistance in this study via eGWAS analyses implemented in gcta v1.93.2beta software. This work was funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 817923 (AQUAFAANG).