Japanese regard water quality — pollution — as the 

 current most serious point to consider in establishing 

 aqua-farms. In considering this ordering of pollu- 

 tion, nutrition, then disease, then genetics, in terms 

 of priority, it should be noted that: 



1) Genetics will not succeed in accomplishing 

 much of anything if the animal, to begin with, is not 

 reasonably easy to culture; 



2) but that genetics can in an early stage of 

 aquaculture contribute to the development of types 

 better able to utilize artificial foods, resist disease, 

 be more vigorous, and develop good gametes; 



3) so nutrition, disease, and genetics should not be 

 regarded, either in the United States or Japan, as 

 three separate research entities — they overlap. 



STORAGE OF STOCKS AND COLLECTIONS 

 FOR BREEDING PURPOSES 



A directory prepared for distribution at the 

 Twelfth International Congress of Genetics, Tokyo, 

 1968, lists important genetic stocks of plants and 

 animals and microorganisms being maintained in na- 

 tional universities (Oshima. 1968). Tohoku Univer- 

 sity, Faculty of Agriculture, is named as holding 

 oyster stocks, but no other fish stocks are listed. 

 There are plans for establishing future "storage" 

 centers to maintain genetic stocks. Fish are not men- 

 tioned in these proposals for storage of genetic 

 stocks prepared by classic geneticists. "Stocks 

 would be managed by an expert geneticist so that 

 uncontrolled, random breeding" of the closed stocks 

 would not result in genetic changes in the stocks 

 making them unrepresentative of the genotypes of 

 the wild populations or cultured lines from which 

 they were sampled for preservation. 



JAPANESE GENETICISTS 



In this same directory, names of 944 Japanese 

 geneticists are registered. Only four are cited as 

 involved in research on fish: one was listed at the 

 Nippon Institute of Scientific Research on Pearls, 

 two as working on the genetics of sexuality in fish, 

 and one on the genetics of invertebrate sex- 

 determination. An exhibit, "Genetics in Asian 

 countries," at this Twelfth International Congress 

 of Genetics," featured research on the origin, dif- 

 ferentiation, distribution, and breeding of a number 

 of plants and animals especially associated with the 

 life of Asian peoples: nothing was included on fish. 



Japan was represented by one of six members of 



the FAQ ad hoc Working Party on Genetic Selec- 

 tion and the Conservation of Genetic Resources of 

 Fish, which met in Rome in 1971 ( Food and Agricul- 

 ture Organization, 1972). Their representative was 

 K. Suzuki, Chief Fish Culture Section. Ueda 

 Branch of Freshwater Fisheries Research Labora- 

 tory, Nagano Prefecture. The report published by 

 this panel is an excellent statement. It is mostly, 

 however, oriented towards freshwater fish. In this 

 report the case for widespread utilization of genetics 

 in the fisheries is put more strongly than presented 

 here where emphasis is on genetics in the total per- 

 spective. 



JAPAN'S NATIONAL INSTITUTE 

 OF GENETICS 



Japan has an excellent National Genetics Insti- 

 tute, which consists of 10 departments and was es- 

 tablished in 1949 as the governmental institute for 

 fundamental studies of genetics. One of its first di- 

 rectors was the now retired H. Kihara, world re- 

 nowned wheat geneticist. In the November 1972 

 edition of Nature devoted to "Science in Japan" 

 there is an article by Kihara, "Activities of the Na- 

 tional Institute of Genetics." 



One of the most active groups is the Department 

 of Developmental Population Genetics. The work 

 of this group is currently all theoretical and not at all 

 concerned with fish. Training of this staff though 

 could be well utilized in fishery research. 



The silkworm is a much used organism for genetic 

 research at this Institute. Genetic mutations inter- 

 fering with the feeding patterns of the silkworm lar- 

 vae are being studied. Such mutations no doubt also 

 present themselves in larvae of marine inverte- 

 brates, as the oyster, which have delicate hirviil stages 

 often difficult to culture. Studies on radiation and 

 chemical mutagenesis are being actively pursued 

 using the silkworm. Emphasis is on dose-rate ef- 

 fects. (This is a very important area. There is a 

 necessity internationally to clarify effects or lack of 

 effects at very low doses of radiation, something 

 most difficult to carry out experimentally.) With em- 

 bryonic death as a criterion, radio-sensitive and 

 radio-resistant strains of silkworms have been iso- 

 lated, differences being 6- to 9-fold. Using 

 Drosophila. induced mutations affecting viability 

 rather than simply inducing lethality have been 

 found to occur 40 times as often as lethal mutations. 

 This work in the field of mutagenesis might be di- 

 rected toward establishing control standards for 



126 



