Auburn University

Awards Issued Prior to January 20, 2025, Were Funded Under Previous Administrations and May Not Reflect the Priorities and Policies of the Current Administration. Hybrid Catfish of Female Channel Catfish and Male Blue Catfish Are Superior in Many Productive Traits, Accounting for More Than 50% of the Us Catfish Harvest. Blue Catfish Males Reach Sexual Maturity in 6 Years, and Sperm Is Collected Through a Lethal Testis Removal Procedure. Thus, the Availability of High-quality Sperm Is the Major Bottleneck for Improving Hybrid Catfish Breeding. Considerable Male-to-male Variability Was Observed in Hybrid Catfish Breeding, Resulting in Variable Embryo Hatching Rates. We Hypothesize That the Variability in Male Reproductive Performance Is Caused by Changes in Sperm Quality, Gene Expression, and Dna Methylation in Response to Different Storage Conditions. in This Project, We Will Identify Informative Biomarkers That Are Significantly Associated With Sperm Quality and Male Reproductive Performance. We Will First Determine Sperm Quality and Morphology, as Well as the Hatching Success, Embryonic Development, and Survival in Hybrid Catfish Reproduction Under Cryopreservation and Short-term Refrigerated Storage. Gene Expression and Epigenetic Changes in Blue Catfish Sperm Will Be Quantified Using Cutting-edge Sequencing Technologies to Determine the Molecular Bases of the Impaired Male Reproductive Performance. We Will Identify the Set of Biomarkers With Maximized Predictive Value for Sperm Quality, Hatch Success, and Embryo Survival to Determine the Best Preservation Conditions and Develop Sperm Quality Diagnostic Tools, Which Will Transform the Current Hybrid Catfish Reproduction Management Practice.