Researchers in Israel claim to have bred the world’s first gene-edited giant river prawn.

The breakthrough was made by researchers at Watershed AC, Evogene Ltd and Ben-Gurion University (BGU), who used CRISPR to breed the crustacean for improved key traits, such as growth rate, disease resistance, and environmental adaptation. The announcement coincides with the organisations’ approval from Israeli authorities for a second year grant to continue developing CRISPR technology for crustaceans.

The collaboration aims to provide a sustainable solution to existing limitations in gene editing for non-model organisms with sparse genomic data and protocols, focusing on improving key traits such as growth rate, disease resistance, and environmental adaptation in crustaceans, targeting giant river prawns, whiteleg shrimp and red swamp crayfish.

During the first year the partners successfully met the collaboration’s planned goals. Evogene leveraged its advanced GeneRator AI tech-engine and provided predictions for optimal guide RNAs (gRNAs), through several novel features: utilisation of un-annotated genomes (lacking gene models), consideration of natural DNA variance in gRNAs design, and off-target prediction to increase editing specificity. This allowed Watershed and BGU to successfully produce the first edited giant river prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) with a selected target trait of coloured eye, post-larvae at advanced life stages, thereby achieving the main milestone in the utilisation of CRISPR technology in crustaceans.

In the second year, the collaboration’s main target is to industrially scale-up CRISPR technology for giant river prawn and expand the obtained application to the additional crustacean species, whiteleg shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) and red swamp crayfish (Procambarus clarkia).

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