4Cs Breeding Technologies Inc is under development of genetics and breeding technologies for shellfish aquaculture and to market these technologies for potential commercialization into shellfish hatcheries and aquaculturists, in order to improve the quality and marketability of hatchery products. Aquaculturists and shellfish farmers are able to grow triploids, a genetic condition in which an organism has three sets of chromosomes, using 4Cs' technology. Most plant and animal cells are diploid, having one set of chromosomes from each parent, two sets in total. A number of common agricultural crops have been improved through polyploidy, including seedless watermelon, bananas, and navel oranges. Triploid oysters and other triploid shellfish are reproductively sterile, incapable of normal sexual maturation. This sterility leads to improved growth rates and improved meat quality in the summer, when diploid oysters spawn. Some evidence for increased disease resistance has also been observed. Using a patented process, 4Cs Breeding Technologies, Inc., produces and nurtures tetraploid brood stock. Males are identified from select brood stock lines and sacrificed for their sperm. The sperm from tetraploid males have two sets of chromosomes (2C) instead of one (1C), as in diploid males. The resulting di-haploid sperm is used to fertilize haploid eggs from the customer's normal diploid brood stock. No induction treatment is used. The resulting zygotes are genetically triploid, with two sets of chromosomes contributed by the sperm and one set contributed by the egg
