Abstract
The transgenic technology has been widely used in biotechnology, from generation of genetically modified (GM) foods to production of pharmaceutical proteins. Although fast-growing transgenic fish using exogeneous growth hormone gene have been successfully produced, the marketing of such GM food fish remains to face an uphill battle. In the present study, we attempted to use the transgenic technology to develop novel varieties of ornamental fish. So far, we have succeeded in generation of several colourful transgenic zebrafish by transferring a jellyfish green fluorescent protein (gfp) gene and an anemone red fluorescent protein (rfp) gene. These transgenic zebrafish displayed green, red, yellow or orange fluorescent colors under both daylight and uv light. Thus, our work demonstrated the feasibility to generate novel varieties of ornamental fish by the transgenic techniques. Currently we are conducting mating behaviour experiments using these transgenic zebrafish. We are also aiming at development of biomonitoring transgenic fish by using some inducible gene promoters that can respond certain environmental pollutants.
