1. To construct a comprehensive collection of expressed sequence tag (EST) contigs along with protein-coding and regulatory non-coding RNA (ncRNA) genes from available EST data.
2. To identify shared pathogen-specific responsive genes across shrimp species from an up-to-date protein-coding and novel regulatory ncRNA genes in EST contigs and clones
3. To experimentally validate a set of shared pathogen-specific responsive protein-coding and putative ncRNA genes in response to pathogen infection.