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Crustacean sensation: Gene discovery might mean bigger prawns on the menu

Australians may soon be lapping up bigger prawns at Christmas after Queensland scientists successfully mapped the genome of the crustacean’s most iconic species.

Mar 14, 2022, updated Mar 14, 2022
Image: Unsplash

Image: Unsplash

The research could allow black tiger prawn producers to breed bigger, more disease-resistant versions.

One of the researchers, Dr Kenneth Chan from the Australian Genome Research Facility (AGRF), explained the challenge of putting together the black tiger prawn’s genome.

“Imagine the task of putting together a 1.9 billion piece double-sided puzzle with no borders,” Dr Chan said.

“[It has] 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.”

The tricky research was a collaboration between James Cook University, AGRF, the University of Sydney, CSIRO and agri-foods company Seafarms Group.

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James Cook University’s Professor Dean Jerry said the genome “essentially contains the blueprint that determines the makeup and behaviour of the prawn”.

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

He said the mapping “radically” changes prawn research and could lead to precision genome engineering of the crustacean.

CSIRO senior research scientist Dr Nick Wade said the mapping of the black tiger prawn also showed a unique way of fighting viruses.

Dr Wade said it could potentially pave the way for new therapies to make prawns more resistant to viral diseases.

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