Genetic Basis and Breeding for Improving Economic Traits in Crustacean

A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Animal Genetics and Genomics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 September 2026 | Viewed by 660

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
1. Key Laboratory of Integrated Rice-Fish Farming Ecology, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Freshwater Fisheries Research Center, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Wuxi 214081, China
2. Wuxi Fisheries College, Nanjing Agricultural University, Wuxi 214081, China
Interests: crustacean; genetics; genomic selection; molecular breeding; computational tools in breeding; gene editing
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Guest Editor
Key Laboratory of Integrated Rice-Fish Farming Ecology, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Freshwater Fisheries Research Center, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Wuxi 214081, China
Interests: crustacean; quantitative genetics; genomic selection; mark-assisted selection; molecular breeding

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Genetic improvement in crustaceans is a vibrant and rapidly advancing research field within the global fisheries industry. It holds significant potential to enhance innovation capacity, market competitiveness, and environmental sustainability. Recent breakthroughs in genetic technologies—including genomic selection and gene editing—have opened unprecedented avenues for improving key traits such as growth rate, disease resistance, and environmental adaptability.

We are pleased to invite you to submit your original research to this Special Issue.

This Special Issue aims to showcase recent progress in genetic diversity and quantitative genetic assessment, the identification of trait-associated molecular markers, and the functional investigation of relevant genes. We hope to compile cutting-edge research on genetic breeding in crustaceans, addressing key challenges and opportunities in this field.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are

not limited to) the following:

  1. Assessment of genetic diversity and population structure in crustaceans;
  2. Quantitative genetic evaluation of economic traits based on pedigree data or genomic molecular markers;
  3. Identification and functional studies of key genes associated with economic traits;
  4. Development of computational frameworks or tools for genomic data analysis;
  5. Gene editing development and application in crustacean breeding.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Shengyan Su
Dr. Honghui Hu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

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Keywords

  • crustacean
  • genetic diversity
  • selective breeding
  • quantitative genetics
  • genomic selection
  • mark-assisted selection
  • molecu-lar breeding
  • healthy culture

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

19 pages, 2889 KB  
Article
Transcriptome and DNA Methylation Analyses Provide Insight into Environmental Adaptation in Northern and Southern Populations of Eriocheir sinensis
by Junlei Ma, Mingxia Sun, Yidong Liang, Ting Zhang, Yulin Bai and Dongpo Xu
Animals 2026, 16(8), 1164; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani16081164 - 10 Apr 2026
Viewed by 392
Abstract
The Chinese mitten crab (Eriocheir sinensis) is widely distributed along eastern China, where northern and southern populations may have evolved different environmental adaptation mechanisms. DNA methylation, as an important epigenetic modification, plays a key regulatory role in environmental adaptation. In this [...] Read more.
The Chinese mitten crab (Eriocheir sinensis) is widely distributed along eastern China, where northern and southern populations may have evolved different environmental adaptation mechanisms. DNA methylation, as an important epigenetic modification, plays a key regulatory role in environmental adaptation. In this study, muscle and hepatopancreas tissues from E. sinensis populations of the Liaohe River (LH) and Beilunhe River (BLH) were subjected to integrated RNA-seq and whole-genome bisulfite sequencing (WGBS) analyses, generating 12 mRNA libraries and 12 DNA methylation libraries. RNA-seq analysis identified 622 and 783 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in muscle and the hepatopancreas, respectively, in the LH group compared with the BLH group, with downregulated genes accounting for a larger proportion. WGBS analysis showed that genome-wide DNA methylation in E. sinensis was predominantly in the CG context, with the highest methylation levels observed in gene body regions. A total of 972 and 991 differentially methylated regions (DMRs) were identified in muscle and the hepatopancreas, respectively. Integrated analysis further identified 10 differentially methylated and expressed genes (DMEGs) in muscle and 26 DMEGs in the hepatopancreas. Notably, no single fixed pattern was observed between methylation changes and gene expression changes in either tissue. These findings suggest that DNA methylation may participate in environmental adaptation in northern and southern populations of E. sinensis by modulating gene expression. Our results highlight the important role of epigenetic regulation in the evolutionary adaptation of crustaceans to different environments and provide a theoretical basis for the development of environment-associated molecular markers and the evaluation of adaptive germplasm resources. Full article
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