First report on vertical transmission of a plasmid DNA in freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii

• Vertical transmission of plasmid from male Macrobrachium rosenbergii to offspring.
• Vertical transmission of plasmid from female M. rosenbergii to offspring.
• Intramuscularly injected plasmid moves to different body parts of M. rosenbergii.

Outbreak of WSSV disease is one of the major stumbling blocks in shrimp aquaculture. DNA vaccines have shown potential for mass scale vaccination owing to their stability, cost effectiveness and easy maintenance. Development of economically feasible delivery strategies remains to be a major challenge. This study demonstrates vertical transmission of a plasmid DNA in a decapod Macrobrachium rosenbergii for the first time. Females at three different maturation stages (immature, matured and berried) and mature males were injected with a plasmid DNA and allowed to spawn with untreated counterparts. Using specific primers the plasmid DNA could be amplified from the offspring of all groups except that of berried females. For this confirmation genomic DNA was isolated from 3 pools of 10 post larvae in each group. This presents an ideal strategy to protect young ones at zero stress.

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