genetically modified fish glow in the dark
In Taiwan, the first genetically enineered pets are for sale: they are called 'Night Pearls' and are genetically modified zebrafish. Originally, no one intended to create a new and trendy pet. Professor Huai-Jen Tsai at National Taiwan University was working on zebrafish, trying to make its organs more visible when studying them under the microscope. For that purpose,
he isolated and extracted a gene from jellyfish and inserted it into the zebrafish's DNA. Unexpectedly, this modification made the zebrafish glow. By special breeding technique, the researchers managed to breed double-colour (red and green) fluorescent fish. Apparently, it's been done by extracting luminous genes from green jellyfish and red coral, and transferring them to a fish embryo by microinjection. Taikong Group, a distributor and manufacturer of aquarium products, was very eager in breeding, marketing and selling those fish. In exchange of research funding, the scientist agreed in sharing his genetic knowledge with Taikong. Shortly after the announcement, Taikong already received million-dollar pre-orders for the new product from abroad. So far, the fish [green fluorescent only] was sold in Taiwan only for about USD $17 each. The red/green glowing species will be available soon. However, before these genetically modified fish can be introduced to the worldwide market, the producers have to find a secure way to make the new species absolutely sterile in order to prevent cross-breeding with natural fish. The research team believes to have accomplished this by means of chromosome manipulation, but there is no 100% safety: only 9 out of 10 are sterilized. The consequences of a non-sterilized fish of this new species cross-breeding with another species or being eaten by another fish are still unknown.
Poll genetically engineered pets