Code
CSIC-IATSRegistration date
28-08-2007Publication date
31-08-2007Update date
17-12-2019- Download the sheet
Description
The Instituto de Acuicultura de Torre de la Sal (IATS) is a public research center of the State Agency Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), which has been active in the field of Marine Aquaculture since 1979. It is located near the Natural Park of Prat de Cabanes-Torreblanca (Castellón). It has a staff of 13 researchers who, together with the support staff, fellows and hired researchers, are the only CSIC center devoted entirely to Aquaculture research. This activity is carried out often in close collaboration with other national and international entities. The IATS is constituted in two departments: Department of Fish Physiology and Biotechnology, which is formed by three research groups: Physiology of Fish Reproduction, Endocrinology of Fish Reproduction and Diversification, and Fish Intake Control , and Department of Biology, Culture and Pathology of Marine Species, integrated by four groups of different specialty: Nutrigenomics and Endocrinology of Fish Growth, Biology and Cultivation of Mollusks, Pathology of Fish, and Auxiliary Species in Aquaculture, Larviculture and Ecotoxicology . The IATS develops research in basic and applied lines in the field of aquaculture of marine species with local projection in the Valencian Community; at the national level, collaborating with other public research organizations and companies located on the Atlantic and Mediterranean coast, and internationally through collaborations funded by international programs, with countries around the world.
Overall information
Goals
Basic and applied research.
Strengths
The priority lines of research are:
- Artemia biology and ecology: biodiversity, genetics, biogeography, invasions, parasitism.
- Live prey, larval nutrition and aquaculture: Studies on the cultivation of live prey for the feeding of larvae of marine organisms and the improvement of their nutritional levels through enrichment and bioencapsulation. Studies on larviculture, especially on the nutrition of marine larvae in aspects related to lipids, amino acids and vitamins. Study of the lipid metabolism of fish larvae.
- Aquatic ecotoxicology: development of biomarkers involved in fundamental physiological and biochemical processes in aquatic organisms. Implications in the environment and aquaculture.
- Molecular genetic characterization of populations of commercial clam species (Subfamily Tapetinae) and other bivalves of commercial interest, with a view to shellfish management and cultivation.
- Fine and Japanese clam genomics: generation of transcriptome sequences, and transcriptomic analysis of populations. Genomic bases of clam growth.
- Nutrigenomics: Design and validation of new feedstuffs based on flours and vegetable oils and new alternative sources of raw materials. Quality and food safety of fish in culture. Functional foods: intestinal health and food conversion.
- Growth endocrinology: oxidative and bio-energetic stress. Functional genomics: identification and characterization of new genes related to characters of interest. Integrated phenotyping through the use of new biotechnology tools and omic approaches.
- Diagnosis, prevention and control of diseases in fish: Determination of parasites and pathologies. Application in vaccine production.
- Molecular, cellular and physiological bases of fish reproduction. Development of environmental, hormonal, engineering and genetic manipulation technologies for the control and study of fish reproduction.
- Neural mechanisms involved in the regulation of intake: participation of the melanocortin system and its regulation.
- Application of the previous aspects to fish farming in larval breeding facilities.