Heterosis of haernolymph analytes of two geographic populations in Chinese shrimp Fenneropenaeus chinensis

Fenneropenaeus chinensis is distributed along the coasts of the northern seacoast of China and the Korean Peninsula. According to their migration routes, spawning and overwintering places, F. chinensis is divided mainly into three geographic variety populations. These populations represent potentially different genetic resources important to hybridisation breeding programs. To evaluate heterosis of the total protein concentration (PC), haemocyanin concentration (HC), penoloxidase (PO) activity, acid phosphatase (ACP) activity, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity and antimicrobial activity (Ua) mating was produced between and within Yellow and Bo sea (YB) population and southern seacoast of Korean Peninsula (SK) population, and the offspring of 49 families was reared to 7.64 g in the controlled environment. The results showed that the content of all haemolymph analytes of SK population was higher than that of YB population, and the immunocompetence in all hybridisations were higher than that in YB male x YB female except of HC in YB male x SK female. Nine of 12 hybridisations had manifested positive heterosis in six haemolymph analytes. Heterosis of SK x YB was all-positive, and this hybridisation was better than YB x SK in HC, PO, ALP activity and Ua. The results suggested that the haemolymph analytes of YB and SK populations had many genetic differences, and hybridisation was an important tool to increase immune reaction and adverse resistance. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.