Sequence identification of a new virus impacting the crayfish industry for RNAi intervention. (Old ID 22431)
Role
Principal Investigator
Description
The crayfish industry is set to bloom as hatchery technology has started to sustainably produce craylings to stock farms. Both hatchery and table demand for crayfish are completely unmet with farm gate prices consistently at $34/kg with a huge potential market. The crayfish industry has a pressing issue of chronic, stress-related mortality events. We have identified a positive sense, single stranded RNA virus (+ve ssRNA) from partial sequences taken from these crayfish. Crayfish cannot be vaccinated against this virus due to a lack of B-cell lineage (antibody producing cells). However, we can use RNA interference (RNAi) to knock down the load of the virus to a minimum, manageable load. To do this, we need to know the sequence of the virus. Positive ssRNA viruses make up about 1/3 of the virosphere, so we cannot assume what virus are likely to have in our crayfish based on our preliminary viral sequence.
Date
01 Dec 2015 - 31 Dec 2017
Project Type
GRANT
Keywords
RNA virus;crayfish industry;Parastacidae Cherax quadricarinatus;RNA Interference;Virus control
Funding Body
James Cook University
Amount
35706
Project Team
Jenny Elliman