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Context: The European perch (Perca fluviatilis) aquaculture is a real opportunity to diversify freshwater fish production in France. As the main technological and biological bottlenecks of this production are now solved, any technological improvement that would help reducing costs will directly improve the competitiveness of this new aquaculture sector. One key biotechnological development in that species would be to produce all-female populations as an important growth dimorphism in favor of females has been described. This can be achieved in such a species with a male heterogametic system (XX/XY), by producing phenotypically male but genetically female animals. These animals are named neo-males (XX males) and when reproduced with normal females (XX females) they produce all-female (XX) populations. This sex-control technique is very effective and is currently under implementation in some perch commercial farms. But the development of this biotechnology at a commercial scale will definitively require an accurate and robust identification of the neomale breeders that are necessary for the production of these all-female populations

Objectives: The PERCHSEX project first aims at providing public perch whole genome reference sequences that will allow the precise characterization of the sex-determining region in these species based on preliminary and unpublished results.

Expectations: This precise knowledge on the sex-determining regions of European and American Perch will be used for the development of an accurate and robust molecular sexing tool that will improve sex-control strategies. In addition, the whole genome sequences produced within this PERCHSEX project will also provide publicly available references for additional genetic and genomic programs in European perch and closely relative Percidae species.