Parental influence on embryo development in Penaeus monodon

Understanding the relative parental influence on embryo development in Penaeus monodon is required to more accurately identify the source of fertility problems that occur within commercial hatcheries. In this study, female broodstock were artificially inseminated with spermatophores from two different males as a novel method of discriminating the embryo development influence between paired males. Fertilized embryos and newly hatched nauplii from 15 spawnings were collected and the proportion from each of the paired males was estimated using genotyping of the individual embryos and nauplii. From each pair, the male that fertilized the highest proportion of eggs was referred to as the ‘dominant’ male. Relationships between the proportions of embryos and proportions of nauplii from each dominant male within each pair were then analysed. Using this approach we were able to show that the proportion of embryos from the dominant male was highly correlated (r=0.915) to the proportion of nauplii from the dominant male, regardless of the overall embryo development rate. Our results found no male influence on embryo development, indicating this was exclusively determined by the quality of the eggs. ► Genotyping offspring to distinguish the parental influence on embryo development. ► No male influence on embryo development. ► Embryo development exclusively determined by the quality of the eggs. ► Important to measure both fertilization and hatch rates in commercial hatcheries.