The application of biotechnology to penaeid prawn aquaculture is incre
asing in importance. Early doubts that such approaches were unnecessar
y, given the crude state of development of the prawn aquaculture indus
try, have been replaced by the recognition that sophisticated molecula
r approaches will be required to tackle key problems of disease recogn
ition and control, and to achieve higher production through the develo
pment of domesticated strains. Progress in penaeid genetic and biotech
nological research has been slow because of a lack of knowledge on fun
damental aspects of their biology. However, data is beginning to emerg
e from research projects started in the last decade, and is likely to
increase rapidly in the next IO years. Highly variable markers have be
en developed that allow the genetic variation in prawn stocks to be as
sessed, even in highly inbred cultured lines. The extent to which grow
th rate is under genetic central has now been assessed in some species
using rigorous experimental designs to estimate heritabilities. Highl
y sensitive techniques that allow the isolation and characterisation o
f very small quantities of peptides are being used to investigate the
endocrine control of reproduction, and work has begun on the isolation
and characterisation of genes that play an important role in growth a
nd reproduction. Greater attention is being paid to developing cell li
nes for prawns, and to the development of molecular probes for the ide
ntification of pathogens. These tools will provide a basis for a more
detailed description of the penaeid prawn genome, for understanding di
sease resistance, and for developing effective control of reproduction
and the development of disease free or disease resistant domesticated
lines. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.