ICAR-CIBA unveils whole genome of Indian White Shrimp

This is a significant achievement for India in decoding the whole genome of the native species of shrimp, one of the world’s most important seafood commodities.

The Scientists of the ICAR-Central Institute of Brackishwater Aquaculture, Chennai have recently sequenced and assembled the whole genome of Indian White Shrimp (Penaeus indicus) on their own. This is a significant achievement for India in decoding the whole genome of the native species of shrimp, one of the world’s most important seafood commodities.

The Indian shrimp industry contributes about 11 per cent share of the global production (759,906 Tonnes valued at $4 Billion in 2020) amongst the shrimp producing countries.

The whole genome sequence of P indicus is a major landmark and this very high-quality genome assembly of P indicus is of 1.93 Gb size with contig N50 of 1.4 Mb having very high number of 346 un-gapped contigs of over 1 Mb length and scaffold N50 of 34.4 Mb. Considering the large genomes of >1.5 Gb length, the assembly presented for P indicus is the only crustacean genome and one among the only nine invertebrate genomes sequenced so far to meet the reference standard of 1 Mb contig N50 and 10 Mb scaffold N50 lengths.

The future genetic improvement programmes with focus on P indicus would benefit aquaculture with increased productivity and sustainability across Asia and the other geographical locations where this shrimp species is predominantly found.

The Scientists’ team involved in shrimp genome assembly included Dr MS Shekhar, Dr Vinaya Kumar Katneni, Dr Ashok Kumar Jangam and Dr KK Vijayan.

The shrimp genome sequencing project was financially supported by the ICAR-Consortium Research Platform on Genomics and coordinated by Dr Joy Krushna Jena, Deputy Director General (Fisheries Science), ICAR.

This is a significant achievement for India