Marine GMO Briefs-Issue 1-Table 1

Species	Target Modified Traits	Proposed Application	Status of Development
Finfish
Mud Loach	Increased growth rates, improved feed conversion and likely sterility after insertion of mud loach growth hormone driven by mud loach ß-actin regulatory region (Nam et al. 2001, Nam et al. 2001a)	Aquaculture for human food	Research
Channel Catfish	Enhanced bacterial resistance after insertion of moth peptide antibiotic, cecropin B gene (Dunham et al. 2002)	Aquaculture for human food	Research
Medaka	Faciliation of better detection of mutations (presumably caused by environmental pollutant factors) after insertion of a bacteriophage vector (serves as a mutational target). After exposure to mutagenic agent, vector DNA is removed, inserted into indicator bacteria--where mutant genes can be easily measured (Winn et al. 1995, Winn et al. 2000, Winn 2001, Winn 2001a, Winn et al. 2001)	Industrial uses; Environmental uses	Research; method has been patented
Atlantic salmon	Increased growth rate and food conversion efficiency by inserting Chinook salmon growth hormone gene that is switched on year-round, thereby fostering growth to occur year-round, rather than mainly in the summer (Cook et al. 2000, Hew and Fletcher 1996)	Aquaculture for human food	Method has been patented; FDA is reviewing application for commercial use
Red Sea Bream	Increased growth rates after insertion of an "all fish" growth hormone - ocean pout antifreeze protein gene promoter and Chinook salmon growth hormone (Zhang et al. 1998)	Aquaculture for human food	Research
Rainbow Trout	Improved carbohydrate metabolism after insertion of human glucose transporter type I and rat hexokinase type II, cloned with viral (CMV) and piscine (sockeye salmon metallothionein-B and histone 3) promoters. Potentially allows giving fish feed that contains plant materials. (Pitkanen et al. 1999)	Aquaculture for human food; Industrial uses	Research
Trout	Increased growth rate and food conversion efficiency via insertion of sockeye salmon growth hormone gene (Devlin et al. 2001)	Aquaculture for human food	Being used as a model for other research
Zebrafish	Production of male-only offspring by injecting into fish eggs an altered gene that prevents the fish's aromatase enzyme from transforming reproductive hormone androgen into estrogen; lack of estrogen prevents development of female fish (Woody 2002)	Biological control of aquatic nuisance species, such as carp	Research; being used as a model for other research
Carp	Improved disease resistance by inserting a human interferon gene (Zhu 2001)	Aquaculture for human food	Research
Goldfish	Increased cold tolerance after insertion of ocean pout antifreeze protein gene (Wang et al. 1995)	Aquaculture for human food	Research
Tilapia	Increased growth rate and food conversion efficiency after insertion of tilapia growth hormone gene (Martinez et al. 2000)	Aquaculture for human food	Seeking regulatory approval
Tilapia	Production of clotting factor after insertion of human gene for clotting factor VII, for medicinal applications (Aquagene 2001)	Pharmaceutical Production	Research
Tilapia	Increased growth rate, food conversion efficiency, and utilization of protein after insertion of chinook salmon growth hormone with ocean pout antifreeze promoter (Rahman et al. 2001)	Aquaculture for human food	Research
Mollusks
	Potential improved disease resistance and growth acceleration in mollusks by harnessing altered genetic material from a virus to introduce foreign DNA (Burns and Chen 1999).	Aquaculture for human food	Research; method has been patented
Oysters	Improved disease resistance by introduction of retroviral vectors. Researchers are determining most effective method of insertion (Lu et al. 1996, Burns and Friedman 2002)	Aquaculture for human food	Research
Marine Plants
Seaweed	Enhanced production of carrageenan or agar (both are valuable to the food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic industries) after introduction of foreign DNA (Cheney and Duke 1995)	Industrial uses	Research; method has been patented
Algae (Spirulina)	Potential improved nutritional and medicinal value of commonly consumed Spirulina. Method to achieve such trait changes recently confirmed via successful integration and expression of a genetically engineered marker gene (Zhang et al. 2001)	Aquaculture for human food	Research
Algae	Enhanced ability to bind heavy metals after successful expression of a foreign class-II metallothionein (chicken MT-II cDNA) (Cai et al. 1999)	Bioremedial application	Research
Marine Microorganisms
Diatoms	Reduced dependence on light for growth after insertion of human gene for biochemical involved in metabolism of sugar (Zaxlavskaia et al. 2001)	Industrial uses	Research
Crustaceans
Crayfish	Production of transgenic offspring (in crayfish and live-bearing fish) after injection, in parents' gonads, of replication-defective pantropic retroviral vector. Successful transgenic individuals expressed neomycin phosphotransferase gene (neoR) (Sarmasik et al. 2001)	Aquaculture for human food	Research; being used as a model for other research
Kuruma Prawns	Potential improved growth rate through gene insertion. Researchers are currently inserting marker genes to confirm most appropriate GE method (Preston et al. 2000)	Aquaculture for human food	Research

References

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