Sterile salmon the goal of Norwegian genetics research

摘要

An evolving technology gives researchers the ability to mutate and thereby turn off selected genes in salmon. The work may eventually lead to a vaccine which stops maturation in farmed fish.One of the potential uses of the process is to produce sterile farmed fish, potentially solving issues related to early maturation. So far Norwegian scientists have tested the process on genes where it is easy to check to see if it works."We have used two types of genes that we know are involved in color pigmentation in human, mice and zebra fish," says Anna Wargelius. She is a researcher at Norway's Institute of Marine Research and head of a project where one of the primary goals is todevelop a vaccine to stop maturation in farmed salmon.