Review on Cryopreservation in Fisheries Science: Applications and Perspectives

Cryopreservation is of interest not only for fish farming but also for the conservation and genetic improvement of resources. This technique has been well established in some freshwater fish species mainly, salmonid, sturgeons and carps, however, only in the last decade research was focused in marine fish species. The benefits of sperm cryopreservation include (i) synchronization of gamete availability of both sexes, (ii) sperm economy, (iii) simplification of broodstock management, (iv) transport of gametes from different fish farms, and (v) germplasm storage for genetic selection programs or conservation of species. These issues would certainly benefit the aquaculture industry. The tremendous impact that biotechnology is having in aquaculture has been particularly obvious in recent years. Successful cryopreservation of fish sperm have been achieved for more than 200 fish species and many fish species have been adequated for the purpose of cryobanking. Cryopreservation of fish embryo is not viable, mainly because of the same limitations as in fish oocytes, i. e. , high chilling sensitivity and low membrane permeability. However, cryopreservation of isolated embryonic cells is another option for preserving both maternal and paternal genome. In this paper, an overview of the current state of aquatic species is followed by a discussion on the sperm, embryos, oocytes and embryonic cells blastomeres.