Improved Gamete Quality and Management

European eel and sturgeons are included in the IUCN as Critically Endangered species. To reduce fishing pressure, and the dependency of this industry on wild populations, and also for stocking purposes, it is important to successfully close the life-cycle of the eel in captivity. Improved gamete quality and management will also benefit production of wildtype conditioned sturgeon and salmon. At present, it is possible to obtain eel eggs or sperm for in vitro fertilization, but only after and very expensive hormonal treatments. Using environmental treatments or gonadotropin implants we plan to reduce or partially replace the standard hormonal treatments currently used to achieve sexual maturation, as well as obtaining a better gamete quality. Furthermore, there is a need to keep good quality sperm reserves in order to fertilize all the eggs when a good batch is obtained. Thus, short-term preservation and cryopreservation methods are required. Utilization of innovative transplantation techniques can help the development of gametes extracted from endangered species using more common species (shorter age of maturation) as the surrogate host. Furthermore, the use of germ cells for the creation of germline chimera is an expansion of this technique for application in cryopreservation platforms aimed at conservation of threatened genetic resources.