Biotech Pets
By Nina Gonzalez & Tayvian Baker
Biotechnology
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Creepily Misleading
Glofish are genetically engineered zebrafish, created by using a special gene from ajellyfish.
In 1999, Scientist Dr. Zhiyuan Gong and his colleagues at the National University of Singapore were working with a gene that is extracted from a jellyfish. These jellyfish carry a gene for a green fluorescent protein, that creates the bright green fluorescence. They extracted this gene and inserted it into a zebrafish embryo. The goal was to develop a fish that could detect pollution by selectively fluorescing in the presence of environmental toxins. They later became very popular in the United States, and were sold in pet stores across the country. There are now hundreds of different fishes with this fluorescent gene and many varied colors, like yellow pink, and green!
Glow-in-the-Dark Cat
Fast Growing Salmon
Glow-In-The-Dark Rabbits
Pros of Genetically Modified Animals
- can reproduce faster
- grow quicker, need less food, and leave less behind
- more resistant to harmful diseases
- can produce more omega-3 fatty acids, for leaner meat and more milk
- can produce substances that can be used for new medicines
Cons of Genetically Modified Animals
- most injected eggs do not end up survivng
- the natural ecosystem can be disterbed
- can die during experiments and grow abnormally
- process can be dangerous and very harmful
- it is said as "unethical" and "inhuman" by animal activists
Glittering Gold Seahorse
Remember the neon glofish, well there's another sea animal that's color is amazing! That animal is the glittering golden seahorse, Vietnamese scientists have created an 108 striped seahorse that can glitter like gold. This animal was created by “gene - shooting method” which is when you take one gene from an organism, then proceed to “shoot” it into another organism. In this case the scientist used a light-emitting gene extracted from jellyfish, was combined with tiny grains of gold. This gene mixture was then injected into the sea horse’s eggs. In fact the gold seahorse was Vietnam’s first genetically modified creature!
Works Cited
- http://www.genpets.com/index.php
- http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/genpets.asp
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GloFish
- http://www.enkivillage.com/genetically-modified-animals.html
- http://nwrage.org/content/vietnam-creates-first-ever-glittering-sea-horses
- http://www.enkivillage.com/genetically-modified-animals.html
- http://gea6.weebly.com/pros-and-cons.html
- http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/biotechnology