Morphology-based selective breeding strategy analysis for abdominal meat yield in Procambarus clarkii

The edible portion of Procambarus clarkii mainly consists of the abdominal muscles, highlighting the genetic enhancement of abdominal meat yield in breeding. To explore a selective breeding strategy for abdominal meat yield, the correlation of morphological characteristics with abdominal meat yield based on five P. clarkii populations collected from its major production areas in China was analyzed and an optimal prediction model was constructed for predicting abdominal meat yield. With the analyses of P. clarkii morphological characteristics, Fulton's condition factor (K), which had a strong negative correlation (-0.800 in males and - 0.705 in females) with abdominal meat yield and the advantage of not requiring the sacrifice of breeding candidates, was eventually selected as the morphological predictor. And the optimal prediction model constructed based on K value was a quadratic curve, with R² values of 0.684 for males and 0.590 for females, and correlation coefficients of 0.827 and 0.768 between observed and predicted values for males and females, respectively. The results of the abdominal meat yield selective breeding experiment, utilizing the optimal prediction model, demonstrated that the breeding population exhibited favorable morphological variation as expected. These findings provide a morphology-based selection strategy for breeding the abdominal meat yield of P. clarkii.