Neo-females of The Giant Freshwater Prawn | Research Impact

Macrobrachium rosenbergii also known as the giant river prawn or giant freshwater prawn is commercially cultured in Asian countries. Generally, the male Macrobrachium rosenbergii grow and reach the market size faster than females. Therefore, the production of all-male crop will be
beneficial for giant freshwater prawn industry in Thailand. We have developed a biomolecule and a method for sex-reversal from males to functional females, so called Neo-female that can produce all-male progeny.

Why?
The giant freshwater prawn is the main cultured species of freshwater prawn in Asian countries. There is a high market demand for male prawn due to their fast-growing characteristic and therefore can be harvested at larger size. Because growth is a major concern for freshwater prawn culture, mono-sex culture is an alternative way to achieve higher average body weight at harvest and thus higher yields. In addition, the number of wild giant freshwater prawn
has continued to decline, so the development of a new strategy that can produce male freshwater prawn for mono-sex culture will be of great benefit to prawn industry of the country in terms of both prawn production and export.

The Process, based on a sex reversal technology through temporal gene silencing, the complete sex reversal of male prawn into a functional female (Neo-female) was first reported in Israel. The temporally intervention of sex determination by this technology during a short period at the early stages could give rise to neo-females. The silencing agent can be degraded in a few days. The manipulation is limited to the broodstock, and the silencing agent is not transmissible to further generation. We developed the biomolecules that can interfere the expression of a gene for an insulin-like androgenic gland hormone or IAG in Macrobrachium rosenbergii through the RNAi technology at the early postlarval stage of the prawn. This strategy can induce complete sex reversal of a male prawn into a functional female that is named after Mahidol University as the MU1 neo-female. The MU1 prawn is capable of mating with normal males and produce male progeny with larger size and higher market value than females.

The sex-reversal technology does not involve the use hormone or chemicals and it does not produce genetically modified prawns. The neo-females were crossbred with normal males
to produce male progeny. The monosex male culture exhibits higher yields, higher average body weight at harvest and higher survival rates than either mixed-sex or mono-sex female cultures under non-intensive conditions.

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Institute of Molecular Biosciences, Mahidol University | https://mb.mahidol.ac.th/en/