Salmon trout

2004/10/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Genetika

Through a technique invented by the Japanese it is possible that trout are born from the salmon. According to them, this technique can lead to a revolution in fish farming and the reactivation of missing species.

The technique has used original germ cells that can become eggs or sperm. The researchers took the original germ cells of the Ortzadar trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and injected them into young male salmon of the same genus (O. masou). Then they let the salmon mature and with their hope they fertilized the trout eggs.

0.4% of the fish born were healthy trout, which shows that the injected cells became trout sperm. The rest of the small fish, however, died young, due to the union of salmon sperm and trout eggs, that is, they were hybrids.

The experiment has been considered a great success, especially considering that these two species separated genealogically 8 million years ago.