Cryopreservation of Juvenile Mytilus galloprovincialis: Safeguarding Mollusk Biodiversity and Aquaculture

Abstract

Mytilus galloprovincialis Lamarck, 1819, is a globally significant aquaculture species, contributing 25% of fresh seafood landings and leading EU mussel production. In Spain, it accounted for 255,218 tonnes in 2022, around 60% of the global harvest. This study introduces groundbreaking cryopreservation, being the first to successfully cryopreserve the juvenile stage of a marine organism, the largest marine organism ever cryopreserved. By optimizing feeding strategies, equilibration times, and cryoprotectant concentrations, we extended our initial protocol for young larvae to include complex larval stages (72h-26 days post-fertilization) and juveniles (40-45 days, up to 1 mm). These protocols mark a significant step in biodiversity conservation, seedstock preservation, genetic line maintenance, and sustainability of overexploited mollusk populations.