Estrogen plays key roles in vertebrate reproductive system via estrogen receptors (ERs) as mediating pathways. In the present study, three full-length ERs cDNA sequences were isolated from a protogynous teleost, the orange-spotted grouper (Epinephelus coioides), and were 2235bp for gERα, 1967bp for gERβ1 and 2158bp for gERβ2, respectively. Phylogenetic and amino acid alignment analyses showed t...

Most giant groupers in the market are derived from inbred stock. Inbreeding can cause trait depression, compromising the animals' fitness and disease resistance, obligating farmers to apply increased amounts of drugs. In order to solve this problem, a pedigree classification method is needed. Here, microsatellite and mitochondrial DNA were used as genetic markers to analyze the genetic relation...

The leather bass Dermatolepis dermatolepis (Boulenger, 1895) is a poorly known grouper living on coral and rocky reefs in the eastern Pacific Ocean. One of only three species in the genus Dermatolepis (family Serranidae, subfamily Epinephelinae), the leather bass distribution ranges from southern California to Ecuador, including the Gulf of California, the Galapagos Islands and other offshore i...

This study was conducted to determine the cholesterol and alpha-tocopherol contents of 20 marine fish and four other seafood from the Straits of Malacca. Cholesterol and alphatocopherol contents of the fish and other seafood were determined using high-performance liquid chromatography. The results showed that most of the fish contained low amounts of cholesterol, except sixbar grouper (Epinephe...

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) have been isolated successfully from the tiger grouper Epinephelusfuscoguttatus intestine. However, their genus or species have not been identified. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to characterize the three isolated LAB (KSBU-12C, KSBU-5Da, and KSBU-9) based on their phenotype and genotype. The LAB phenotype was examined by observing morphological fe...

Many large groupers form spawning aggregations, returning to the same spawning sites in consecutive spawning seasons. Connectivity between spawning aggregations is thus assured by larval dispersal. This study looks into the genetic structure and gene flow among spawning aggregations of a large grouper, the gulf coney Hyporthodus acanthistius, in the northern Gulf of California. First, using the...

Here we report the complete genome sequence of Singapore grouper iridovirus (SGIV). Sequencing of the random shotgun and restriction endonuclease genomic libraries showed that the entire SGIV genome consists of 140,131 nucleotide bp. One hundred sixty-two open reading frames (ORFs) from the sense and antisense DNA strands, coding for lengths varying from 41 to 1,268 amino acids, were identified...

Betanodavirus is the pathogen of viral nervous necrosis (VNN) disease that has caused mass mortality among many species of marine fish at larval stage. In this study, the efficacy of inactivated betanodavirus was evaluated by bath-immunization and bath-challenge of orange-spotted grouper (Epinephelus coioides) at early larval stage. Two kinds of chemicals were used for inactivation of the virus...

Based on light and scanning electron microscopical studies of nematode specimens (males and mature females) collected from the ovary of groupers (Serranidae, Perciformes) in the Mediterranean Sea off Tunisia (near Tunis and Sfax), two gonad-infecting species of Philometra Costa, 1845 (Nematoda, Philometridae) are reported: Philometra inexpectata n. sp. from the mottled grouper Mycteroperca rubr...