NTNU has selected marine research as a strategic focus area of research and education (NTNU Marine). NTNU Marine obtains strategic funding from the university and is responsible for developing multidisciplinary research and education within the main 5 domains of research, of which “Marine Aquaculture and Aquaculture Engineering” is one main area. NTNU has a long experience in fundamental biological and biochemical aspects of marine aquaculture.

The multidisciplinary NTNU group has recently moved into new joint laboratory facilities; NTNU Centre of Fisheries and Aquaculture, which is well equipped for research on marine aquaculture at all life stages.

Two of the 16 departments involved in NTNU Marine will contribute to the project:

1. Department of Biology
2. Department of Biotechnology

The partner has participated in several international projects financed by the EC. The most recent ones are COMWEB (MAST3-CT96-0052) and Rotigen (Q5RS-2002-01302).

The partner will lead WP1, will undertake rearing experiments with cod together with partner 6 and microbiological fingerprinting, and will be responsible for synthesis across species.

In WP2 and 3 responsibility for execution and analysis of cod experiments.

In WP4 responsibilities will be on characterization of microbial communities in cod experiments.

The partner will be responsible for integration and concept model in WP5 and will contribute to the other tasks in this WP.

Members of the groups at NTNU have been involved in larviculture and fish biology research since the mid 80's. The partner has two strong fields of relevance for the application.

1. Broad experience on first feeding of marine fish with main focus on larval nutrition, live feed production and quality, and on aspects related to the activity of bacteria, including: larva/bacteria interaction, live feed/bacteria interactions, and controlled colonization of water and organisms by bacteria.
2. The partner has also considerable experience on fish development and physiology, including hormone regulation and gene expression studies. Two targeted gene arrays that were based on subtracted libraries have been produced for salmon and cod, respectively.

• Fjellheim AJ, Playfoot KJ, Skjermo J, Vadstein O (2007). Vibrionaceae dominates the microflora antagonistic towards Listonella anguillarum in the intestine of cultured Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua L.) larvae. Aquaculture 269: 98-106.
• Kortner TM, Arukwe A (2007) Effects of 17 alpha-methyltestosterone exposure on steroidogenesis and cyclin-B mRNA expression in previtellogenic oocytes of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua). Com Biochem Physiol C-Toxicol & Pharmacol 146: 569-580
• Mortensen AS, Arukwe A (2007). Targeted salmon gene array (SalArray): A toxicogenomic tool for gene expression profiling of interactions between estrogen and aryl hydrocarbon receptor signalling pathways. Chem Res In Toxicol 20: 474-488.
• Olsen Y (2004). Live food technology of cold-water marine fish larvae. Pp. 73-128. In: E Moksness, E Kjørsvik, Y Olsen. Culture of cold-water marine fish. Blackwell Publishing
• Vadstein O, Mo TA, Bergh Ø (2004). Microbial interactions, prophylaxis and diseases. pp. 28-72. In: E Moksness, E Kjørsvik, Y Olsen. Culture of cold-water marine fish. Blackwell Publishing