GloFish

Last updated
GloFish
Danio rerio GloFish-science institute aquaria 05.jpg
Organism
Mode Transgenesis
Method Insertion
Vector Multiple including green fluorescent protein
DeveloperYorktown Technologies, L.P.
Trait(s) conferred Fluorescent colors
Genes introducedMultiple
Electric Green GloFish Tetra GloFish tetra.jpg
Electric Green GloFish Tetra

The GloFish is a patented and trademarked brand of fluorescently colored genetically modified aquarium fish. They have been created from several different species of fish: zebrafish were the first GloFish available in pet stores, and recently the black tetra, tiger barb, [1] rainbow shark, Siamese fighting fish, X-ray tetra, and most recently bronze corydoras [2] have been added to the lineup. They are sold in many colors, trademarked as "Starfire Red", "Moonrise Pink", "Sunburst Orange", "Electric Green", "Cosmic Blue", and "Galactic Purple", although not all species are available in all colors. Although not originally developed for the ornamental fish trade, it is one of the first genetically modified animals to become publicly available. The rights to GloFish are owned by Spectrum Brands, Inc., which purchased GloFish from Yorktown Technologies, the original developer of GloFish, in May 2017.

Contents

History

Early development

An ordinary Zebra Danio Zebrafisch.jpg
An ordinary Zebra Danio

The original zebrafish (or zebra danio, Danio rerio) is a native of rivers in India and Bangladesh. It measures three centimeters long and has gold and dark blue stripes. In 1999, Dr. Zhiyuan Gong [3] and his colleagues at the National University of Singapore were working with a gene that encodes the green fluorescent protein (GFP), originally extracted from a jellyfish, that naturally produced bright green fluorescence. They inserted the gene into a zebrafish embryo, allowing it to integrate into the zebrafish's genome, which caused the fish to be brightly fluorescent under both natural white light and ultraviolet light. Their goal was to develop a fish that could detect pollution by selectively fluorescing in the presence of environmental toxins. The development of the constantly fluorescing fish was the first step in this process, and the National University of Singapore filed a patent application on this work. [4] Shortly thereafter, his team developed a line of red fluorescent zebra fish by adding a gene from a sea coral, and orange-yellow fluorescent zebra fish, by adding a variant of the jellyfish gene. Later, a team of researchers at the National Taiwan University, headed by Professor Huai-Jen Tsai, succeeded in creating a medaka (rice fish) with a fluorescent green color, which, like the zebrafish, is a model organism used in biology.

The scientists from NUS and businessmen Alan Blake and Richard Crockett from Yorktown Technologies, L.P., a company in Austin, Texas, met and a deal was signed whereby Yorktown obtained the worldwide rights to market the fluorescent zebrafish, which Yorktown subsequently branded as "GloFish". At around the same time, a separate deal was made between Taikong, the largest aquarium fish producer in Taiwan, and the Taiwanese researchers to market the green medaka in Taiwan under the name TK-1. In the spring of 2003, Taiwan became the first to authorize sales of a genetically modified organism as a pet. One hundred thousand fish were reportedly sold in less than a month at US$18.60 each. The fluorescent medaka are not GloFish, as they are not marketed by Yorktown Technologies, but instead by Taikong Corp under a different brand name.

Introduction to the United States market

GloFish were introduced to the United States market in late 2003 by Yorktown Technologies, after two years of research. The governmental environmental risk assessment was made by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which has jurisdiction over all genetically modified (GM) animals, including fluorescent zebra fish, since they consider the inserted gene to be a drug. The FDA determined in December 2003:

Because tropical aquarium fish are not used for food purposes, they pose no threat to the food supply. There is no evidence that these genetically engineered zebra danio fish pose any more threat to the environment than their unmodified counterparts which have long been widely sold in the United States. In the absence of a clear risk to the public health, the FDA finds no reason to regulate these particular fish. [5]

Marketing of the fish was met by protests from a non-governmental organization called the Center for Food Safety. They were concerned that approval of the GloFish based only on a Food and Drug Administration risk assessment would create a precedent of inadequate scrutiny of biotech animals in general.[ citation needed ] The group filed a lawsuit in US Federal District Court to block the sale of the GloFish. The lawsuit sought a court order stating that the sale of transgenic fish is subject to federal regulation beyond the FDA's charter, and as such should not be sold without more extensive approvals. In the opinion of Joseph Mendelson, the Center for Food Safety's legal director:

It's clear this sets a precedent for genetically engineered animals. It opens the dams to a whole host of nonfood genetically engineered organisms. That's unacceptable to us and runs counter to things the National Academy of Sciences and other scientific review boards have said, particularly when it comes to mobile GM organisms like fish and insects. [6]

The Center for Food Safety's suit was found to be without merit and dismissed on March 30, 2005.[ citation needed ]

Subsequent developments

In addition to the red zebrafish, Yorktown Technologies released green and orange-yellow versions of the zebrafish in mid-2006. In 2011, blue and purple zebrafish were released. These lines of fish incorporate genes from sea coral. [1] In 2012, Yorktown Technologies introduced a green version of a GloFish derived from a different species of fish, the black tetra. [1] This was followed by a green version of a tiger barb. In 2013, Yorktown Technologies introduced orange, pink, and purple Tetras, which made Tetras the first GloFish to be available in pink. This was followed in 2014 by the release of red and blue Tetras. The colors are trademarked as "Starfire Red", "Moonrise Pink", "Sunburst Orange", "Electric Green", "Cosmic Blue", and "Galactic Purple".

Other fish released include the GloFish shark, available in orange, green, and purple. Though these fish are not scientifically related to sharks, they are based on the albino rainbow shark. [7] In February 2020, green GloFish bettas also known as Globettas were released, with three different variations. These variations include female, (young) male, and premium (adult) male.

A "Galactic Purple" GloFish shark Glofish shark purple.jpg
A "Galactic Purple" GloFish shark

Despite the speculation of aquarium enthusiasts that the eggs of the fluorescent fish were pressure treated to make them infertile, it has been found some GloFish are indeed fertile and will reproduce in a captive environment. [8] However, the GloFish Fluorescent Fish License states "Intentional breeding and/or any sale, barter, or trade, of any offspring of GloFish fluorescent ornamental fish is strictly prohibited.". [9]

Sale or possession of GloFish was made illegal in California in 2003 due to a regulation that restricts genetically modified fish. The regulation was implemented before the marketing of GloFish, largely due to concern about a fast-growing biotech salmon. The regulations were lifted in 2015 due to a growing body of evidence and the findings of the Food and Drug Administration and the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. GloFish are now legal in California for importation and commercial sale. [10]

The import, sale and possession of these fish is not permitted within the European Union. On November 9, 2006, however, the Netherlands’ Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment (VROM) found 1,400 fluorescent fish, which were sold in various aquarium shops. [11]

In January 2009, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration formalized their recommendations for genetically engineered animals. [12] These non-binding recommendations describe the way in which FDA regulates all GM animals, including GloFish. [13]

Research published in 2014 assessed the environmental safety associated with GloFish. One paper concluded that there is little risk of invasiveness into the environment. [14] A second study concluded that there is no difference in risk between GloFish and wild-type danios. [15]

Public reception

The sentiments of aquarium retailers towards the GloFish have been used as an indicator of the public's positive reaction to controversial agricultural and aesthetic biotechnologies. The practical reception of GloFish among fish retailers was found to be affected by multiple effects, including concerns over ethics, customer demand, and the high cost of stocking the fish. Some retailers opted not to stock the fish due to low trust in federal agencies to properly regulate the organisms. [16]

Vulnerability to predation

GloFish are more vulnerable to predation compared to the wild type, according to a study published in 2011. In experiments including habitat complexity, transgenic red fluorescent zebrafish were approximately twice as vulnerable as the wild type to predation by largemouth bass ( Micropterus salmoides ) and eastern mosquitofish ( Gambusia holbrooki ), two native predators that potentially resist invasion by introduced fish. [17]

Evolutionary outcomes

According to Howard et al. 2015, wild-type males had a significant advantage over GloFish when it came to mating. [18] According to the mating trials that were analyzed in the study, wild-type males sired twice as much as the genetically modified fish due to their more aggressive nature. [18] However, in Owen et al. 2012 by the same group, female zebrafish preferred the GloFish rather than wild-type males. [18]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biotechnology</span> Use of living systems and organisms to develop or make useful products

Biotechnology is a multidisciplinary field that involves the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms and parts thereof for products and services.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zebrafish</span> Species of fish

The zebrafish is a freshwater fish belonging to the minnow family (Cyprinidae) of the order Cypriniformes. Native to South Asia, it is a popular aquarium fish, frequently sold under the trade name zebra danio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Genetically modified organism</span> Organisms whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering methods

A genetically modified organism (GMO) is any organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. The exact definition of a genetically modified organism and what constitutes genetic engineering varies, with the most common being an organism altered in a way that "does not occur naturally by mating and/or natural recombination". A wide variety of organisms have been genetically modified (GM), including animals, plants, and microorganisms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Genetic engineering</span> Manipulation of an organisms genome

Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification or genetic manipulation, is the modification and manipulation of an organism's genes using technology. It is a set of technologies used to change the genetic makeup of cells, including the transfer of genes within and across species boundaries to produce improved or novel organisms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Genetically modified food</span> Foods produced from organisms that have had changes introduced into their DNA

Genetically modified foods, also known as genetically engineered foods, or bioengineered foods are foods produced from organisms that have had changes introduced into their DNA using various methods of genetic engineering. Genetic engineering techniques allow for the introduction of new traits as well as greater control over traits when compared to previous methods, such as selective breeding and mutation breeding.

Inbred strains are individuals of a particular species which are nearly identical to each other in genotype due to long inbreeding. A strain is inbred when it has undergone at least 20 generations of brother x sister or offspring x parent mating, at which point at least 98.6% of the loci in an individual of the strain will be homozygous, and each individual can be treated effectively as clones. Some inbred strains have been bred for over 150 generations, leaving individuals in the population to be isogenic in nature. Inbred strains of animals are frequently used in laboratories for experiments where for the reproducibility of conclusions all the test animals should be as similar as possible. However, for some experiments, genetic diversity in the test population may be desired. Thus outbred strains of most laboratory animals are also available, where an outbred strain is a strain of an organism that is effectively wildtype in nature, where there is as little inbreeding as possible.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Painted fish</span> Artificially coloured aquarium fish

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pGLO

The pGLO plasmid is an engineered plasmid used in biotechnology as a vector for creating genetically modified organisms. The plasmid contains several reporter genes, most notably the green fluorescent protein (GFP) and the ampicillin resistance gene. GFP was isolated from the jelly fish Aequorea victoria. Because it shares a bidirectional promoter with a gene for metabolizing arabinose, the GFP gene is expressed in the presence of arabinose, which makes the transgenic organism express its fluorescence under UV light. GFP can be induced in bacteria containing the pGLO plasmid by growing them on +arabinose plates. pGLO is made by Bio-Rad Laboratories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glowlight danio</span> Species of fish

The glowlight danio is a small, schooling fish closely related to the popular zebrafish Danio rerio. This should not be confused with the GloFish, a trademarked brand of fluorescent zebrafish that appear to glow in the dark under ultraviolet light.

This page provides an alphabetical list of articles and other pages about biotechnology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Japanese rice fish</span> Species of fish

The Japanese rice fish, also known as the medaka, is a member of genus Oryzias (ricefish), the only genus in the subfamily Oryziinae. This small native of Japan is a denizen of rice paddies, marshes, ponds, slow-moving streams and tide pools. It is euryhaline, occurring in both brackish and freshwater. It became popular as an aquarium fish because of its hardiness and pleasant coloration: its coloration varies from creamy-white to yellowish in the wild to white, creamy-yellow, or orange in aquarium-bred individuals. Bright yellow, red or green transgenic populations, similar to GloFish, have also been developed, but are banned from sale in the EU. The medaka has been a popular pet since the 17th century in Japan. After fertilization, the female carries her eggs attached anterior to the anal fin for a period before depositing them on plants or similar things.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Genetically modified plant</span> Plants with human-introduced genes from other organisms

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zebrafish Information Network</span> Model organism database on zebrafish

The Zebrafish Information Network is an online biological database of information about the zebrafish. The zebrafish is a widely used model organism for genetic, genomic, and developmental studies, and ZFIN provides an integrated interface for querying and displaying the large volume of data generated by this research. To facilitate use of the zebrafish as a model of human biology, ZFIN links these data to corresponding information about other model organisms and to human disease databases. Abundant links to external sequence databases and to genome browsers are included. Gene product, gene expression, and phenotype data are annotated with terms from biomedical ontologies. ZFIN is based at the University of Oregon in the United States, with funding provided by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Genetically modified animal</span> Animal that has been genetically modified

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The United States is the largest grower of commercial crops that have been genetically engineered in the world, but not without domestic and international opposition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Genetically modified fish</span>

Genetically modified fish are organisms from the taxonomic clade which includes the classes Agnatha, Chondrichthyes and Osteichthyes whose genetic material (DNA) has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. In most cases, the aim is to introduce a new trait to the fish which does not occur naturally in the species, i.e. transgenesis.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of genetic engineering</span>

Genetic engineering is the science of manipulating genetic material of an organism. The concept of genetic engineering was first proposed by Nikolay Timofeev-Ressovsky in 1934. The first artificial genetic modification accomplished using biotechnology was transgenesis, the process of transferring genes from one organism to another, first accomplished by Herbert Boyer and Stanley Cohen in 1973. It was the result of a series of advancements in techniques that allowed the direct modification of the genome. Important advances included the discovery of restriction enzymes and DNA ligases, the ability to design plasmids and technologies like polymerase chain reaction and sequencing. Transformation of the DNA into a host organism was accomplished with the invention of biolistics, Agrobacterium-mediated recombination and microinjection. The first genetically modified animal was a mouse created in 1974 by Rudolf Jaenisch. In 1976, the technology was commercialised, with the advent of genetically modified bacteria that produced somatostatin, followed by insulin in 1978. In 1983, an antibiotic resistant gene was inserted into tobacco, leading to the first genetically engineered plant. Advances followed that allowed scientists to manipulate and add genes to a variety of different organisms and induce a range of different effects. Plants were first commercialized with virus resistant tobacco released in China in 1992. The first genetically modified food was the Flavr Savr tomato marketed in 1994. By 2010, 29 countries had planted commercialized biotech crops. In 2000 a paper published in Science introduced golden rice, the first food developed with increased nutrient value.

Pleistophora hyphessobryconis unicellular, spore-forming protozoan parasite. It is the causative agent of "neon tetra disease." P. hyphessobryconis is a known pathogen of the zebra danio, a model organism used in many research laboratories.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "GloFish web page". Archived from the original on 2021-01-20. Retrieved 2003-11-29.
  2. ↑ "Glowy coriees=14 November 2022". reef2rainforest. 6 September 2022. Archived from the original on 14 November 2022. Retrieved 14 November 2022.
  3. ↑ "NUS - National University of Singapore". nus.edu.sg. Archived from the original on 2021-01-25. Retrieved 2012-10-06.
  4. ↑ Published PCT Application WO2000049150 "Chimeric Gene Constructs for Generation of Fluorescent Transgenic Ornamental Fish." National University of Singapore Archived 2021-05-06 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ↑ "FDA Statement Regarding Glofish". Food and Drug Administration . Archived from the original on 2010-03-05.
  6. ↑ Charles Choi (January 7, 2004). "GloFish draw suit". The Scientist. Archived from the original on July 1, 2015. Retrieved May 11, 2013.
  7. ↑ Pet, Spectrum Brands. "Spectrum Brands Pet LLC Introduces GloFish® Sharks to GloFish® Family of Fluorescent Fish". www.prnewswire.com (Press release). Archived from the original on 2020-02-12. Retrieved 2020-02-12.
  8. ↑ "Finformation" (PDF). Greater Pittsburgh Aquarium Society. pp. 4–5. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-12-17.
  9. ↑ "License Notice". Archived from the original on 13 June 2021. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
  10. ↑ "Letter from Director Charlton H. Bonham to Gene Livingston, Greenburg Traurig, LLC, regarding GloFish" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on December 21, 2016. Retrieved February 17, 2017.
  11. ↑ vrom.nl Archived March 9, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  12. ↑ "Genetically Engineered Animals". fda.gov. Archived from the original on 2009-05-11. Retrieved 2019-12-16.
  13. ↑ "Regulation of Genetically Engineered Animals Containing Heritable Recombinant DNA Constructs" (PDF). Food and Drug Administration . Archived (PDF) from the original on 2019-01-08. Retrieved 2019-12-16.
  14. ↑ Hill, Jeffrey E.; Lawson, Larry L.; Hardin, Scott (2014). "Assessment of the Risks of Transgenic Fluorescent Ornamental Fishes to the United States Using the Fish Invasiveness Screening Kit (FISK)". Transactions of the American Fisheries Society. 143 (3): 817–829. Bibcode:2014TrAFS.143..817H. doi:10.1080/00028487.2014.880741. Archived from the original on 2019-02-03. Retrieved 2014-07-04.
  15. ↑ "Risk Assessment of Transgenic Fluorescent Ornamental Fishes to the United States Using FISK v2" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-07-14. Retrieved 2014-07-04.
  16. ↑ Peddie, Brian. "A Grounded Theory of Florida Aquarium Retailers' Acceptance of the GloFish" (PDF). University of Florida. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2012-07-03. Retrieved 2013-06-25.
  17. ↑ Hill, Jeffrey E.; Kapuscinski, Anne R.; Pavlowich, Tyler (2011). "Fluorescent Transgenic Zebra Danio More Vulnerable to Predators than Wild-Type Fish". Transactions of the American Fisheries Society. 140 (4): 1001–1005. Bibcode:2011TrAFS.140.1001H. doi:10.1080/00028487.2011.603980.
  18. 1 2 3

Further reading

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