Unleashing the tiger: Mapping the Aussie tiger prawn genome

Date:
March 14, 2022
Source:
James Cook University
Summary:
Researchers have mapped the genome of an iconic Australian seafood
species -- that of the Australian black tiger prawn - which may lead
to bigger and more disease resistant farmed stock in the future.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== James Cook University researchers have been part of the first-ever
successful effort to map the genome of an iconic Australian seafood
species -- that of the Australian black tiger prawn -- which may lead
to bigger and more disease resistant farmed stock in the future.


==========================================================================
JCU Professor of Aquaculture Dean Jerry said the research came out of
the ARC Industrial Transformation Research Hub for Advanced Breeding, a collaboration between JCU, the Australian Genome Research Facility (AGRF),
the University of Sydney, CSIRO and Seafarms Group. The partnership
aimed to improve productivity and efficiency of farming prawns through
the use of genetic selection.

"The idea was to improve the capability of Australian prawn farmers to
apply selective breeding practices to produce larger and healthier farmed prawns. As part of this project, we set out to sequence the genome of
the black tiger prawn. The information in the genome is important for
us to know, as it essentially contains the blueprint that determines
the makeup and behaviour of the prawn," said Professor Jerry.

He said one benefit of having this genome is that it can significantly
help with the selective breeding efforts of prawns, similarly to what has happened with livestock and crop species over the last few thousand years.

"The prawn is a tiny animal, but its genome is almost as large as a human,
and is much more complicated in its structure," said Professor Jerry.

AGRF Bioinformatics Manager Dr Kenneth Chan said the genetic mapping
process to reconstruct the genome of the black tiger prawn was
diabolically tricky.



========================================================================== "Imagine the task of putting together a 1.9 billion piece double-sided
puzzle with no borders, long repeated overlapping sections, millions
of missing pieces, multiple pieces that can fit in the same place, no
picture on the box to follow, and possibly lots of pieces from another unrelated puzzle," said Dr Chan.

The scientists also found something very unusual in the way the tiger
prawn fought viral infections.

Dr Nick Wade, Senior Research Scientist with CSIRO explained that the
Viral elements in the genome that help fight viral infections (known as
the Endogenous Viral Element or EVE) is truly unique in the Australian
tiger prawn.

"No EVE found in any other animal looks like this," said Dr Wade.

"Discovery of this EVE allows for further research into understanding how prawns deal with infections by viruses and perhaps into new therapies that
can be applied to make prawns more resistant to viral diseases," he said.

Professor Jerry said the benefits of mapping the genome will come in a
whole range of complementary areas.

"It radically changes the landscape for prawn research, enabling a whole
suite of other functional biological studies, including on how to target particular genes for improved selection outcomes, through to precision
genome engineering," said Professor Jerry.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by James_Cook_University. Note: Content
may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Roger Huerlimann, Jeff A Cowley, Nicholas M Wade, Yinan Wang, Naga
Kasinadhuni, Chon-Kit Kenneth Chan, Jafar S Jabbari, Kirby
Siemering, Lavinia Gordon, Matthew Tinning, Juan D Montenegro,
Gregory E Maes, Melony J Sellars, Greg J Coman, Sean McWilliam,
Kyall R Zenger, Mehar S Khatkar, Herman W Raadsma, Dallas Donovan,
Gopala Krishna, Dean R Jerry.

Genome assembly of the Australian black tiger shrimp (Penaeus
monodon) reveals a novel fragmented IHHNV EVE sequence. G3
Genes|Genomes|Genetics, 2022; DOI: 10.1093/g3journal/jkac034 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220314095727.htm

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