AIMS and CSIRO both have significant expertise in shrimp husbandry and genetics. AIMS has concentrated on rearing technology and reproductive biology of the giant tiger prawn, Penaeus monodon, while CSIRO Division of Livestock Industries has worked on quantitative genetics and molecular genetics of P. monodon and the Kuruma prawn, Marsupenaeus japonicus. At the outset of this collaborative project, CSIRO had already developed a primary linkage map for the Kuruma prawn and AIMS had successfully reared a three-generation pedigreed family of P. monodon. AIMS and CSIRO therefore decided to combine their resources and expertise to initiate development of a framework genetic map for P. monodon.

International collaboration was invited from the outset. An initial map based on Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP) markers was published in 2002 in a four-way collaboration between AIMS, CSIRO, Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok and the University of New Mexico. Development of the map has progressed since that publication with the addition of both AFLPs and Type I markers such as microsatellites (SSRs), Single Stranded Conformation Polymorphisms (SSCPs), Exon-Primed Intron-Crossing (EPIC) markers and Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs). It is these TypeI markers that will enable the framework map to be transferable across pedigrees.

At present, there are six different groups collaborating in the international mapping project:

• AIMS, Townsville, Australia (Dr Kate Wilson) k.wilson@aims.gov.au
• CSIRO, Brisbane, Australia (Dr Yutao Li) yutao.li@csiro.au
• James Cook University, Townsville, Australia (Dr Dean Jerry) dean.jerry@jcu.edu.au
• Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand (Dr Anchalee Tassanakajon) Anchalee.K@Chula.ac.th
• Chinese University of Hong Kong (Dr K. H. Chu) kahouchu@cuhk.edu.hk
• Iowa State University (Dr Max Rothschild) mfrothsc@mfrothsc.mail.iastate.edu

A further collaboration with the Fundación CENAIMESPOL, Ecuador (Dr Franklin Pérez) is underway to begin investigating comparative mapping between P. monodon, M. japonicus and Litopenaeus vannamei using EST markers.