The crustacean farming industry has been sufferingsolemn problems and enormous economic losses from an outbreak of white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) since 1993[1]. WSSV is an acute pathogen and can infect numerous crustaceans, including shrimp, crab, and lobster [2,3].Shrimp cultivation is often affected by outbreaks of deadly infectious diseases caused mainly by viruses[4]. In the maintenance of substantial production of farmed shrimp,an understanding of the shrimp immune system would allow for the development of management strategies to control virulent or problematic pathogens encountered on
shrimp farms[5]. WSSV, the pathogen of shrimp white spot disease, is a rod-shaped enveloped dsDNA virus belonging to Nimaviridae family[6]. This virus can infect many kinds of marine and freshwater crabs and shrimp[7]. The genome