Aquaculture 2025

March 6 - 10, 2025

New Orleans, Louisiana USA

Add To Calendar 07/03/2025 16:45:0007/03/2025 17:05:00America/ChicagoAquaculture 2025TRANSOVARIAL TRANSMISSION: TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE SHRIMP AQUACULTURE THROUGH INTERGENERATIONAL MANIPULATION OF GENE EXPRESSIONStudio 9The World Aquaculture Societyjohnc@was.orgfalseDD/MM/YYYYanrl65yqlzh3g1q0dme13067

TRANSOVARIAL TRANSMISSION: TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE SHRIMP AQUACULTURE THROUGH INTERGENERATIONAL MANIPULATION OF GENE EXPRESSION

Isam Khalaila*, Shany Cohen, Omer Ilouz, Mahde Hasan, Ehud Elfer, and Yuval Malca

 

Avram and Stella Goldstein–Goren Department of Biotechnology Engineering, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva 84105, Israel

isam@bgu.ac.il

 



Transovarial transmission is a fascinating biological phenomenon observed in many invertebrates, it involves the transmission of various agents, such as pathogens, symbiotic microorganisms, or genetic material, from the parent generation to their offspring via the eggs during vitellogenesis and oocytes development. OSDel is a crustacean transovarian transmission tool developed in our lab, were proven to piggyback dsRNA and silence specific genes in M. rosenbergii. Moreover, the tool has been proved to piggyback a chimeric CAS9-OSDel into oocytes and edit genes in the black soldier flies. Herein, OSDel tool was utilized for transovarial transmission of the white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) dsRNA (dsWSSV) in L. vannamei females. The intergenerational effect of OSDel piggybacked dsWSSV on RNAi immune priming and resistance against WSSV of the offspring of treated females was tested. Indeed, a systemic RNAi response was found in L. vannamei larvae and postlarvae taken from OSDel-dsWSSV, treated females. We found that offsprings born to mothers treated with OSDel-dsWSSV were surprisingly resistant to a major viral threat, WSSV. This breakthrough represents a novel approach to shrimp disease control, potentially paving the way for broader protection of broodstocks and their offsprings toward sustainable crustacean farming applicable to WSSV and various crustacean viruses, among other pathogens.