The Adjunct Researcher of the Integrative Program of the INCAR Center and Academic of the Austral University of Chile (UACh), Puerto Montt headquarters, Dr. Carlos Molinet, was awarded the FIPA 2023-1 Project “Characterization and ecological and genetic evaluation of natural banks of mutilids and their contribution to the availability of larvae for the seed collection activity, Stage 1: Reloncaví Fjord and communes of Hualaihué and Castro”, which has the Universidad Austral de Chile as a sponsoring institution and the INCAR Center and IFOP as associated institutions .
The project, whose objective is to carry out an ecological and genetic evaluation of the main natural banks of mussels in the Reloncaví Estuary and the communes of Hualaihué and Castro, and determine their contribution to larval availability for the seed collection activity, has among its objectives specific:
1. Identify the main natural banks of mussels in the Reloncaví Fjord and the communes of Hualaihué and Castro.
2. Carry out an evaluation of the general state of the natural banks, considering abundance, cover, density, biomass, vertical distribution, sexes, size structure and associated community, with emphasis on the different species that could affect the mussel banks.
3. Genetically characterize the natural banks, considering the vertical gradient, using SNP markers, to support the traceability of the different species of the genus Mytilus present in the study area and identify possible banks with populations or individuals of exotic species.
4. Generate a massive sequencing tool that allows establishing and relating the geographic origin of the new recruits in the natural banks and of the seeds captured in the collectors, with respect to the previously identified natural banks.
“The award of this project is very important to give continuity to the lines of research in mussel farming that have been strengthened by INCAR in the Los Lagos region and keeps us well positioned in this area,” explained Dr. Molinet, who also He is Director of the Institute of Aquaculture (IACUI) and the Fisheries Research Program UACh.
Along with Dr. Molinet, the Deputy Director of INCAR and Principal Investigator of the center’s “Aquaculture Genomics” line, Dr. Cristian Gallardo, also participates in this project; the UACh Researcher, Dr. Marcela Astorga; and the team of the Fisheries Research Program of the UACh-Puerto Montt, Manuel Díaz, Jorge Henríquez, Thamara Matamala, Katherine Espinoza and Cesar Salgado.
