I'm always amazed by the imagination of scientists. Can you believe that Japanese researchers have created an animal species from another one? The Independent in the UK reports that "salmon gives birth to trout in scientific leap that gives hope to endangered fish."
The scientists injected "germ cells from young trout into young salmon. Thirty days later, when the salmon became sexually mature, they produced sperm and eggs of trout. What is even more puzzling is that the researchers worked with North American rainbow trout and masu salmon, which is only found in east Asia. Only 0.4 percent of the offspring were healthy trout while the other 'children' were hybrids which died at a very young age.
This doesn't discourage the researchers. Now they want to use mackerels to produce bluefin tuna, a fish loved by Japanese sushi lovers, but poised to extinction at current fishing rates. You'll find more details and references in this overview.
The scientists injected "germ cells from young trout into young salmon. Thirty days later, when the salmon became sexually mature, they produced sperm and eggs of trout. What is even more puzzling is that the researchers worked with North American rainbow trout and masu salmon, which is only found in east Asia. Only 0.4 percent of the offspring were healthy trout while the other 'children' were hybrids which died at a very young age.
This doesn't discourage the researchers. Now they want to use mackerels to produce bluefin tuna, a fish loved by Japanese sushi lovers, but poised to extinction at current fishing rates. You'll find more details and references in this overview.
| :: posted by Roland Piquepaille, 11:17 AM | Comments (0)
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