Enzootic and NRGene have completed the sequencing and assembly of the world’s first high-quality genome of freshwater shrimp, M. rosenbergii, to study the performance superiority of female shrimp and enhance the breeding of the all-female broodstock.
The companies know that farming all-female populations of shrimp has clear sustainability advantages and the genome of the female shrimp is distinguished from that of its male counterpart by the distinctive W chromosome. However, the sequences and encoding genes unique to this chromosome remained unknown until now.
“The preliminary study of this outstanding high-quality genome has already revealed dozens of new previously unknown putative W-specific genes, with a fascinating array of functional motifs that could shed light on the importance of the W chromosome and its potential impact on the performance of females,” said crustacean endocrinologist Prof. Amir Sagi of Ben-Gurion University in the Negev and co-founder of Enzootic.
“Further research will be needed to reveal the role of these novel genes and how they regulate the physiology of females under mono-sex aquaculture conditions,” he said.
NRGene’s DeNovoMAGIC 3.0 has been used to assemble more than 350 genomes in less than two years, among them, the first-ever genomes of wheat, potato, strawberry, rye, oat rye-grass, and now female shrimp.
The highly complex shrimp genome delivered by DeNovoMAGIC resulted in an assembly size of 3.57 Gbp and an N50 scaffold size of 19.84 Mbp with BUSCO scores of 92.7%.
