Abstract
The ecological safety of transgenic organisms is an important issue of international public and political concern. The assessment of ecological risks is also crucial for realizing the beneficial industrial application of transgenic organisms. In this study, reproduction of common carp (Cyprinus carpio, CC) in isolated natural aquatic environments was analyzed. Using the method of paternity testing, a comparative analysis was conducted on the structure of an offspring population of “all-fish” growth hormone gene-transgenic common carp (afgh-CC) and of wild CC to evaluate their fertility and juvenile viability. Experimental results showed that in a natural aquatic environment, the ratio of comparative advantage in mating ability of afgh-CC over wild CC was 1∶1, showing nearly identical mating competitiveness. Juvenile viability of afgh-CC was low, and the average daily survival rate was less than 98.00%. After a possible accidental escape or release of transgenic CC into natural aquatic environments they are unable to monopolize resources from eggs of natural CC populations, leading to the extinction of transgenic CC. Transgenic CC are also unlikely to form dominant populations in natural aquatic environments due to their low juvenile viability. Thus, it is expected that the proportion of afgh-CC in the natural environment would remain low or gradually decline, and ultimately disappear.
Highlights
Transgenic fish technology was first introduced in the 1980s and has been used for the genetic improvement of farmed fish [1,2]
Food security and the ecological safety of transgenic organisms are of great public concern and represent the last obstacles preventing transgenic fish from entering the market
Transgenic CC carried recombinant afgh, which is the grass carp growth hormone gene driven by the CC b-actin promoter (Figure 1)
Summary
Transgenic fish technology was first introduced in the 1980s and has been used for the genetic improvement of farmed fish [1,2]. Several fast-growing transgenic fish strains have been bred, showing attractive commercial prospects [3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13]. Food security and the ecological safety of transgenic organisms are of great public concern and represent the last obstacles preventing transgenic fish from entering the market. It is generally believed that fertility and viability are key fitness parameters for evaluating the ecological safety of transgenic fish [14,15]. Results of comparative studies of single factors of viability and fertility showed that transgenic fish exhibited lower viability and fertility [15,20,22,27,28,29]
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