Gene Silencing biotechnology developed at BGU to advance Vietnamese Aquaculture
Prof. Amir Sagi from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) participated in a ceremony marking the realization of an agreement between the Israeli Tiran Group and Green Advances, a Vietnamese company, to advance aquaculture in Vietnam using BGU biotechnology to change the sex of prawns and yield fast growing all-male populations.
The process was developed in Prof. Sagi’s laboratory at BGU and was patented and licensed through BGN Technologies, BGU's technology transfer company, to the Tiran Group, an Israeli shipping company with aquaculture farms in China.
“This is the first time that the aquaculture industry will be able to use advanced gene silencing to increase yields,” says Prof. Sagi. “The technology is sustainable since it doesn’t use any chemicals or hormones and does not create genetically modified organisms (GMO). This is made possible through the unique monosex culture of prawns, which we can obtain by using our original discovery of an insulin-like androgenic hormone that influences the sex of these prawns. Since the males are faster growers, this discovery could help local farmers increase their income.”
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