The Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS, Dr Kate Wilson) and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) Division of Livestock Industries (Dr Yutao Li) are jointly coordinating an international collaborative research program to develop a framework genetic linkage map of the giant tiger prawn, Penaeus monodon.

This species is the predominant species grown in aquaculture throughout the South-East Pacific region, with a global annual production of over 500,000 metric tons. To date, production of this species continues to rely primarily on use of wild broodstock. However, programs are underway in a number of countries, including Australia, to develop closed life cycle breeding of P. monodon on a commercial scale. This will lead to the development of selective breeding programs, which can be supported by marker assisted selection. The goal of the international collaboration project is to develop a public domain framework map with markers that can be transferred between different P. monodon pedigrees. This will facilitate the development of molecular markers for 1) monitoring genetic diversity of the species; 2) identifying elite pedigreed lines 3) providing fundamental information for a comparative genome mapping between shrimp species; and 4) underpinning efforts in shrimp gene discovery and functional genomics