Genomic Imprints for Identifying Candidate Genes Involved with Specific Disease Resistance in Tiger Shrimp (Penaeus monodon)

This research project was funded by the Ministry of Education, Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh

Shrimp (Penaeus monodon) sector in Bangladesh has emerged as an important aquaculture industry over the last few decades occupying more than 275,000 hectare coastal cultivable land though its greater part of culture is in traditional methods. Soil, water and climate conditions are all favorable for shrimp farming but our production per unit is far less than other countries. Shrimp and prawn together represent the second largest exportable items contributing to foreign exchange earnings in Bangladesh. From 2001- 2002 to 2016-2017 the volume of shrimp has increased from 47,000 ton to 246,000 ton. Moreover, a large number of people are actively involved with shrimp sector for livelihood throughout the coastal belt of Bangladesh. Although shrimp sector has a great impact to the economy of Bangladesh, still the farming practice largely based on traditional to semi-intensive systems with poor quality farming systems. In recent years, shrimp production and export have declined significantly due to outbreaks of various types of diseases (mainly due to WSSV and EMS). Disease outbreak is the major challenge in the shrimp sector in Bangladesh. The overall shrimp production can be increased by several folds with our existing facilities only by managing or controlling the disease issues. Modern genetic (particularly genomic) approaches are now shedding light to efficiently manage problems associated with commercial issues. Thus, NGS based genomic technologies can be used for efficient and cost effective identification of genes and markers involved with specific disease resistance in P. monodon. Efficient identification of genes will help to modify the expression pattern of the disease resistance genes to produce disease resistant lines of shrimp which will undoubtedly bring a revolution in aquaculture industry in Bangladesh. In the proposed research, attempts will be made to identify genes involved with specific disease resistance in P. monodon.

Amount: 20,00,000 BDT

• Research Project