Genetic improvement on Chinese shrimp (Fenneropenaeus chinensis): growth and viability performance in F1 hybrids of different populations

Fenneropenaeus chinensis distributed in the Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea of China and the west coast of the Korean Peninsula. Different geographical populations represent potentially different genetic resources. To learn further the characteristics of different geographical population, crosses among two wild and three farmed populations were produced. The two wild populations were from the Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea (WYP), and the west coast of the Korean Peninsula and coast (WKN). The three farmed populations included the offspring of first generation of wild shrimp from coast in Korea (FKN), the Huang Hai (the Yellow Sea in Chinese) No.1 (HH1), and JK98. The phenotypes growth and survival rates of these populations were compared to confirm the feasibility for crossbreeding. The body length (BL), carapace length (CL), carapace width (CW), height of the second and third abdominal segment (HST), width of the second and third abdominal segment (WST), length of the first abdominal segment (LF), length of the last abdominal segment (LL), live body weight (BW), and survival rate were measured. Different combinations were statistically performed with ANOVA and Duncan’s Multiple Range Test. The results show that the survival rate of JK98(♀)×WKN(♂) was the highest, followed by WYP(♀)×WKN(♂), FKN(♀)×WYP(♂), FKN(♀)×HH1(♂) and WYP(♀)×FKN(♂); the body weight of FKN(♀)sxHH1(♂) was the highest, followed by FKN(♀)×WYP(♂), WYP(♀)×WKN(♂), WYP(♀)×FKN(♂) and JK98(♀)×WKN(♂); the total length had the same ranking as the body weight. All growth traits in hybrids JK98(♀)×WKN(♂) were the lowest among all combinations. F1 hybrids had significant difference (P<0.05) in BL, CL, HST, LL, and BW; and insignificant difference (P>0.05) in other growth traits and survival rate. The results of Duncan’s Multiple Range Test are that BL and CL of JK98(♀)×WKN(♂) were significantly different from the other combinations; HST different from the combination of FKN(♀)×WYP(♂), FKN(♀)×HH1(♂) and WYP(♀)×WKN(♂); and BW different from FKN(♀)×WYP(♂) and FKN(♀)×HH1(♂). As a whole, the results indicate that the FKN(♀)×HH1(♂) was the best combination in all growth traits. Therefore, hybridization can introduce the variation to base populations. The systematic selection program based on additive genetic performance may be more effective than crossbreeding.