The entire shrimp genomics
community is encouraged to participate in this effort. This
includes groups that may have developed / be developing their own
pedigreed lines of P. monodon. We believe that progress
will be more rapid if a shared set of genomic resources is
developed, that can then be used by members of the shrimp research
and aquaculture community for application to their own, specific
projects, rather than each group independently investing resources
in development of separate genetic maps.
This thinking is in line
with much of the philosophy underpinning large scale vertebrate
genomics projects e.g. the human ‘hap map" (haplotype map). At
Welcome Trust meeting in January 2003, a "community resource
project" was defined as "a research project specifically devised
and implemented to create a set of data, reagents or other
material whose primary utility will be as a resource for the broad
scientific community".
The P. monodon
mapping project should be viewed as such a community resource
project, and is perhaps the forerunner of a larger shrimp genomics
consortium which is now being formed. Quoting from the white paper
prepared by Paul Gross and Craig Browdy " It is proposed to form a
Shrimp Genomics Consortium: all interested researchers from the
U.S. and international communities (both academic and corporate)
are invited to join this group whose goals are 1) the free and
open dissemination of information regarding shrimp research and 2)
the collective pursuit of publicly available community resources
for "genomic enablement" of shrimp research. We believe that this
is the best way for shrimp researchers and producers alike to
advance shrimp breeding and our understanding of genetics, disease
resistance, development and other factors germane to shrimp
scientific discovery. We strongly believe that there is a huge
untapped potential for cooperation in the shrimp community, and
that the SGC will provide a vehicle and catalyst for such
collaborations to develop."
For more information on the
shrimp genomics consortium, please contact Paul Gross (
