Yu Zhang

TL;DR: A high-quality reference genome sequence of channel catfish is reported, providing evidence that lack of secretory calcium-binding phosphoproteins accounts for the evolutionary loss of scales in catfish and demonstrates the power of comparative subtraction of candidate genes for traits of structural significance.

TL;DR: The results set a foundation for future studies comparing mechanisms of pathogen entry and mucosal immunity across several important catfish pathogens including E. ictaluri, Edwardsiellatarda, Flavobacterium columnare, and virulent atypical Aeromonas hydrophila.

TL;DR: This is the first RNA-Seq-based expression study in catfish in response to heat stress, and the candidate genes identified should be valuable for further targeted studies on heat tolerance, thereby assisting the development of heat-tolerant catfish lines for aquaculture.

TL;DR: The large set of transcripts assembled in this study is the most comprehensive set of genome resources ever developed from catfish, which will provide the much needed resources for functional genome research inCatfish, serving as a reference transcriptome for genome annotation, analysis of gene duplication, gene family structures, and digital gene expression analysis.

TL;DR: Four QTLs associated with columnaris resistance in catfish are revealed and many candidate genes on the four associated regions are involved in PI3K pathway that is known to be required by many bacteria for efficient entry into the host.