Scientists of the subsidiary of the “National agrarian science and educational center” JSC - LLP «Fisheries Research and Production Center» conducted an online consultation on genetic studies of hydrobiontes in Kazakhstan.

The speaker was Shalgimbayeva Gulmira Mukhametkaliyevna, head of the laboratory of genetics of aquatic organisms of LLP «Fisheries Research and Production Center».  

 The first genetic studies were carried out by scientists from KazRIF (nowadays LLP «Fisheries Research and Production Center») in the mid-80s of the last century, the work was focused on the breeding of the Kazakh carp breed. Scientists obtained 5 lines of carp with economic useful traits by chemical mutagenesis methods.

The next stage of genetic research took place in 2005-2007, the management of KazRIF (nowadays LLP «Fisheries Research and Production Center») it was decided to open a laboratory of fish phenogenetics and the research was aimed at finding intrapopulation differentiations among biological groups or seasonal races of sturgeon of the Ural River (beluga, Russian sturgeon, stellate sturgeon) by biochemical methods, by analyzing proteins of sturgeon blood systems (hemoglobins, albumin) and the research was suspended due to lack of funding.  

In 2011-2012 with the support of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan, work on genetic research of sturgeon was included in one of the budget programs and specialists of KazRIF (LLP «Fisheries Research and Production Center») in scientific cooperation with Russian scientists - geneticists from the All-Russian Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography, continued in the mid-2000s work on genetic monitoring with application of modern molecular genetic methods of DNA analysis.

In the genetic monitoring of sturgeon fish in the Ural-Caspian basin, were included sturgeon fish hatcheries in the city of Atyrau, which began to form breeding stock of sturgeon (beluga, Russian sturgeon). This was the beginning of the formation of a database of sturgeon genotypes in the Ural-Caspian basin. Scientific research of the center was supplemented with population genetic data of sturgeon fish. Gradually, other fish species (carp, pike-perch, Balkhash perch, etc.) and invertebrate aquatic organisms - brine shrimp and fish food items began to be included in studies to assess genetic diversity.

The accumulated experience of scientists served as the basis for the opening in 2016 of the laboratory of genetics of aquatic organisms and will set off on an independent voyage. Funding for equipping the laboratory with modern instrumentation was provided by one of the oil companies in Kazakhstan. To date, laboratory specialists are involved in genetic research in almost all projects and programs implemented by the Center for grant, targeted program and extra-budgetary funding.

The center takes part in the work of an international scientific program for the conservation of sturgeon in the Caspian basin, which involves five Caspian states (Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Russia). One of the objectives of this program is to develop a unified methodology for genetic tagging of sturgeon fish released by sturgeon fish hatcheries in each country, the adoption of which will help assess the efficiency of the factories and the contribution of each state to the conservation of sturgeon in the Caspian.

  One of the main problems in this area of ​​work is personnel training, unfortunately, higher educational institutions do not train specialists in biologists, ichthyologists, fish farmers focused on genetic or biochemical studies of aquatic organisms, mainly the focus of training covers the sector of plant growing and animal husbandry.

All the speeches of the speakers can be seen on the YouTube channel, as well as on the pages on Instagram and Facebook of LLP «Fisheries Research and Production Center».