14 DAY TRIAL // After fluorescent pigs, now fluorescent fish have been created. This happened at the National University of Singapore by injecting red, green and orange fluorescence genes coming from a jellyfish into the fish female sex cells.
The researchers did it with the aim of using the fish for detecting environmental pollutants. Now, the engineered fish are also sold for pets! They are marketed as GloFish, but they are just a fluorescent variety of the zebrafish (Danio rerio), a common aquarium pet fish.
A United States-based biotechnology company applied earlier this year to the Gene Technology Regulator to allow it import and sell the GloFish and this is also going to happen in Australia.
The proteins encoded by the genes coming from the jellyfish make the fish absorb light and then expel it, so they appear shining in red, green or yellow and look very cool in a dark chamber.
The Gene Technology Regulator experts and key stakeholders found that fluorescent proteins do not pose any threat for humans, not being toxic to human or other organisms, or provoking an allergic reaction.
The research team that created the engineered fish is attempting to make the fish glow only when located in contaminated waterways. The selling company's website warns that the fish should not be released into the wild, because being a tropical species, does not survive the cold.
Still, environmental activist groups, like Greenpeace, are against selling the fluorescent fish.
"We have no way of predicting what havoc they will cause when they are released into the wild," states Greenpeace on its website.
"Aquarium fish get introduced into native ecosystems all the time, and can survive in the warmer waters of some springs and around industrial wastewater pipes, so this really is no laughing matter. Any escape would be irreversible." Zebrafish is also known to have escaped in foreign tropical areas, like Columbia.
The company also warns pet owners not to eat the shining fish.
"GloFish fluorescent zebra fish, like all ornamental fish, are not intended for human consumption; they should never be eaten".