ABSTRACT
Gene transfer approach can be used to assess the potential impact of foreign genes in model organisms such as finfish. The technology can be extended to produce fast-growing strains in a variety of fish species like catfish, tilapia, Northern pike, striped bass, Atlantic salmon, loach, etc. In shellfish, the transfer of genes has been a recent phenomenon with both hetero-specific and homo-specific gene constructs used to transfect shellfish embryos, cell cultures, and sperm. Microinjection procedures have been developed for some shellfish and marine invertebrates including mussels, oysters, shrimp, and sea urchin eggs embryos (Cadoret et al., 1997). The injection procedure was used to assess the enhancement effect of the biosynthetic fish growth hormone (GH) on a variety of finfish and shellfish. For example, experiments with yearling rainbow trout, striped bass, top minnows and abalone showed an increase in growth rates in response to administration of GH polypeptide.
