Linhua Zhang¹ , Shiying Yu²

1 Institute of Life Science, Jiyang College of Zhejiang A&F University, Zhuji, 311800, Zhejiang, China
2 Biotechnology Research Center, Cuixi Academy of Biotechnology, Zhuji, 311800, China
Author    Correspondence author
International Journal of Aquaculture, 2025, Vol. 15, No. 5   doi: 10.5376/ija.2025.15.0022
Received: 30 Jul., 2025    Accepted: 09 Sep., 2025    Published: 20 Sep., 2025

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Zhang L.H., and Yu S.Y., 2025, Genetic basis of growth traits in shrimp based on QTL and GWAS studies, International Journal of Aquaculture, 15(5): 229-239 (doi: 10.5376/ija.2025.15.0022)

Shrimps are an important part of global aquaculture, especially South American white shrimp and other varieties dominate the global aquatic supply, and their output accounts for more than half of the world's total crustacean production. Growth traits (such as body length, weight, etc.) are directly related to breeding yield and economic benefits, and are one of the core goals of aquatic breeding. In recent years, molecular genetic technologies such as quantitative trait locus (QTL) localization and genome-wide association analysis (GWAS) have made progress in the field of aquatic products and have been gradually applied to shrimp genetic breeding research. This study reviews the main growth traits of shrimp and their biological mechanisms, reviews the current application status of QTL localization and GWAS in the study of growth traits of shrimp, summarizes the research progress of key molecular markers and candidate genes, and discusses the combination of traditional breeding and molecular assistive means using Chinese shrimp as an example. Finally, future strategies and international cooperation in shrimp molecular breeding are expected.

Shrimp; growth traits; Quantitative trait loci (QTL); Genome-wide association analysis (GWAS); Molecular marker-assisted breeding