LIFECYCLE will deliver a knowledge-base to improve competitiveness and sustainability of European aquaculture, through a combination of question-problem driven approaches. The focus will be on early developmental events, growth and environmental adaptation throughout the lifecyle, and on the physiology and immunology of key life-stage transitions, such as metamorphosis, smoltification and puberty.
To advance current knowledge on mechanisms governing essential biological functions in fish, state-of-the-art physiological research will be combined with functional genomics by leading European research groups. LIFECYCLE will focus on all major life stages of sea bass, sea bream, Atlantic salmon and rainbow trout. For these important aquaculture species, substantial resources and biological information exists which will be exploited and integrated to potentiate the overall impact.
