2.1. Tissue material
Six mature prawns (3 males and 3 females) in good health were randomly
selected as experimental specimens from Huzhou Fengsheng Bay Farm,
Zhejiang province in China, and subjected to an ice bath for
immobilization. Brain and thoracic ganglia tissues of each prawn
(approximately 20 g) were rapidly excised and flash-frozen in liquid
nitrogen. The dissected tissues of the 3 males and 3 females were mixed
with those of the same sex to eliminate individual differences. These
were stored at −80 °C until the total RNA was extracted. The other
tissues were collected according to experimental requirements. Animal
experiments were approved by Animal Ethics Committee of Shanghai Ocean
University.