AIT conducts studies with BIOTEC
The Aquaculture Program, SERD, Asian Institute of Technology recently signed an agreement with BIOTEC to conduct a study and project on aquaculture. The studies will be conducted by Dr. Amrit Bart and Dr. Yang Yi.
Pangasius gigas or Mekong giant catfish, one target species for the cryopreservation research (photos courtesy of Dr. Graham C. Mair)
Dr. Amrit Bart will conduct a study on 'Cryogenic preservation of threatened Pangasiid catfishes in Thailand'. The Pangasiid catfish indigenous to the Thai waters, while threatened from various courses with numbers dwindling rapidly, also represent opportunity as prime candidate species for aquaculture. In this study, genetic material from endangered and threatened Pangasiid species will be preserved using cryogenic tools based on population structure data and genetic diversity of the natural populations. Direct output of the study will result in development of genetic markers for populations of the three Pangasiid species namely: Gigas, Larnaudii and Sanitwongsei. A specific objective is to develop and optimize cryopreservation protocols for sperm of key Pangasiid species including the three most endangered species.
Dr. Yang Yi will conduct a project on 'SHRINFO: Shrimp Research Information Database'. The project will provide and maintain a Thai-English web-enable database named SHRINFO, dedicated to information on shrimp research conducted at various agencies and university in Thailand. The database web site will also provide general information about shrimp industry in Thailand, government and private agencies working on shrimp and other useful shrimp related links.