Abstract
Monosex population culture is important for both commercial and environmental reasons. It is abundantly practiced in poultry and cattle, enabling better yields and more efficient broodstock management and is a desirable outcome for aquaculture. In several commercially important fish species, either all-male or all-female populations is gained through hormonal treatments that can be environmentally hazardous. In crustaceans on the other hand, recent studies have demonstrated the commercial viability of using RNA interference to silence the masculinising androgenic gland hormone. Due to the species-specific impact of such intervention and the fact that the silencing agent is a naturally occurring highly degradable compound, this technology mitigates the environmental risk of hazardous chemicals. In an attempt to harness this novel biotechnology to the lobster industry, we have characterised, for the first time in spiny lobsters, the androgenic gland in the eastern rock lobster Sagmariasus verreuxii and commenced with characterisation of the androgenic gland hormone, termed Sagmariasus verreuxii insulin-like androgenic gland factor (Sv-IAG).