Scientists from Israel have announced the successful gene editing of a giant river prawn, marking the first such instance globally. This pioneering work was carried out through a collaboration between Watershed AC, Evogene Ltd, and Ben-Gurion University (BGU), utilizing the powerful CRISPR technology to enhance desirable traits in the prawn species.
The genetically edited prawns were developed with improvements in growth rate, disease resistance, and adaptability to environmental changes, setting the stage for further advancements in sustainable aquaculture. This achievement aligns with the organizations’ recent receipt of a second-year grant from Israeli authorities to continue their research into gene editing in crustaceans.
The project addresses the technical challenges posed by non-model organisms—species with limited genomic information—by advancing CRISPR applications in aquaculture. In addition to the giant river prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii), the research team aims to target whiteleg shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) and red swamp crayfish (Procambarus clarkii) in the next phase.
During the first year, the collaboration met all of its key objectives, with significant contributions from Evogene’s GeneRator AI platform. This cutting-edge system predicted the optimal guide RNAs (gRNAs) for gene editing, taking into account natural DNA variations and performing off-target analyses to enhance precision. By working with unannotated genomes, the research team successfully produced gene-edited giant river prawn specimens, including those with a targeted eye pigmentation trait in their post-larval stage.
The researchers are now focused on scaling up the use of CRISPR technology for industrial applications in giant river prawns. Additionally, they plan to expand the methodology to other commercially significant crustaceans, including whiteleg shrimp and red swamp crayfish.
“This milestone showcases the potential of CRISPR to overcome the challenges of genetic improvement in non-model organisms,” the research team stated. “Our focus now shifts to refining these techniques for broader application and supporting sustainable aquaculture practices.”
With this breakthrough, the researchers hope to offer the aquaculture industry new solutions to boost production efficiency, promote disease resistance, and improve the sustainability of crustacean farming.
