Assessing transgenerational gene editing capacity for enhancing aquaculture productivity in decapod crustaceans

Abstract

In the wake of global population increases and stagnating capture fishery production, there exists a requirement for novel biotechnologies to increase aquaculture productivity to offset demand. Through recognition of limitations imposed by aquaculture—increased incidence of disease, stress, cannibalism, and mortality in captivity—researchers continue to investigate RNA interference (RNAi) and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR) technologies for their potential to alleviate these at a genetic level. In decapods, with the exception of generating desirable all-male monosex populations in Macrobrachium rosenbergii, RNAi and CRISPR technologies have yet to provide a significant commercial use case. This literature review provides a comprehensive examination of RNAi and CRISPR in decapods, along with popular delivery methods (injection/microinjection; electroporation; receptor-mediated ovary transduction of cargo [ReMOT]; and nanoparticles). It identifies a number of limitations including scalability bottlenecks imposed by RNAi delivery methods, and deferred gene editing progress as a result of CRISPR's infancy. Finally, it recognises gene editing induced gene silencing (GEiGS®) as a novel method for silencing gene expression, and suggests an interim examination of transgenerational gene silencing (TGS) (‘parental RNAi’) in decapods to enhance aquaculture productivity.