International Journal of Aquaculture, 2025, Vol.15, No.2, 45-56 http://www.aquapublisher.com/index.php/ija 45 Feature Review Open Access CRISPR-based Genome Editing in Shrimp and Its Potential in Aquaculture Haimei Wang Hainan Institute of Biotechnology, Haikou, 570206, Hainan, China Corresponding email: haimei.wang@hibio.org International Journal of Aquaculture, 2025, Vol.15, No.2 doi: 10.5376/ija.2025.15.0006 Received: 10 Feb., 2025 Accepted: 12 Mar., 2025 Published: 20 Mar., 2025 Copyright © 2025 Wang, This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Preferred citation for this article: Wang H.M., 2025, CRISPR-based genome editing in shrimp and its potential in aquaculture, International Journal of Aquaculture, 15(2): 45-56 (doi: 10.5376/ija.2025.15.0006) Abstract In recent years, genome editing technology has developed rapidly and has shown broad prospects in the field of animal and plant breeding. Focusing on the application of CRISPR/Cas system in shrimp genome editing and its potential impact on the aquaculture industry, this study introduces the current development status of the global aquaculture industry and the major challenges faced; outlines the principles and advantages of CRISPR-Cas gene editing technology, and compares it with the early ZFNs and TALENs technologies, pointing out the outstanding advantages of CRISPR in operation simplicity and editing efficiency; expounds the complexity of shrimp genome and the latest sequencing research progress, lists the identification results of major economic trait-related genes and the construction of shrimp transcriptome database. This study focused on reviewing the latest application cases of CRISPR technology in shrimps, including the exploration of using CRISPR/Cas9 to edit the Vitellogenin gene of the shrimp to affect ovarian development, and targeting receptor genes susceptible to WSSV to enhance disease resistance. It also explores the prospects of CRISPR in regulating shrimp growth and reproduction, including accelerating growth and gender control, in order to provide a comprehensive reference for in-depth research on shrimp genome editing technology and the application of aquaculture practice. Keywords Shrimp; Genome editing; Growth and reproduction regulation; Aquaculture; Disease-resistant breeding 1 Introduction The aquaculture industry is one of the important pillars of the current food supply, but it also faces severe challenges. With the expansion of the scale of breeding and the increase in the degree of intensiveness, various diseases occur frequently, seriously affecting yield and efficiency. Shrimp plays an important role in global aquaculture production. Taking China as an example, the production of farmed shrimps such as white shrimp in South America increased from 1.429 9 million tons in 2013 to 2.098 6 million tons in 2024, an increase of 46.8%, making it the highest-yield farmed crustacean. The high output value of shrimps is accompanied by high risks, and diseases such as leukoplakia syndrome virus (WSSV), early death syndrome (EMS, that is, acute hepatopancreatic necrosis), which reduces the survival rate of shrimp seedlings and huge farming losses (Lee et al., 2022). In addition, the slowdown in growth rates and germplasm degradation caused by genetic degradation also plague the breeding industry. Although traditional breeding methods (such as family breeding, hybridization, etc.) have cultivated multiple shrimp varieties, it is still difficult to make rapid breakthroughs in disease resistance and stress resistance and improvement of growth traits. The rise of genome editing technology has brought new hope to solve the above problems. Unlike transgenes, gene editing can accurately modify the target gene without the introduction of exogenous genes, so it is theoretically safer and controllable, and has relatively high public acceptance (Strobbe et al., 2023). Among them, CRISPR/Cas9 technology has attracted much attention because of its simplicity and efficiency. Since its introduction in 2012, it has been rapidly applied to the research on gene functions and breeding of various organisms. In the field of aquaculture, CRISPR technology is gradually expanding from model organisms to economic species, opening up new ways for genetic improvement. For example, researchers have used CRISPR to cultivate new snapper lines with 20% increased muscle yield. For shrimps, the introduction of gene editing is expected to
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