http://news.com.com/Are+scientists+...kentrout/2100-7337_3-5808900.html?tag=cd.lede
From article:
From article:
Consumers want bigger fish, so researchers at the USDA's Agricultural Research Service have figured out a way to breed trout that are bigger and considered more attractive than the regular variety.
The modified fish are bigger because they have three sets of chromosomes, rather than two sets, as is normal. Rainbow trout with the extra chromosomes--the long strands of DNA that determine genetic makeup--grow faster because they are unable to reproduce. The energy from the food they eat is shifted from reproduction to growth, said William Hershberger at the agency's Center for Cool and Cold Water Aquaculture.
Additionally, the flesh of these modified fish, which are called triploids, doesn't become soft with age, and their skin doesn't become dark--common traits in normal fish. The trout's prominent hook nose doesn't develop so rapidly either. While these characteristics aren't problems for the trout, consumers tend to shy away from ugly fish, Hershberger said. Ugly, unsold fish, of course, means wasted food and lower profits.
Under a strategy used by some fish hatcheries, embryos are exposed to heat or pressure about 20 minutes after fertilization to add the third set of chromosomes.
But under the technique created at the Agricultural Research Service, scientists apply heat or shock to actually add two extra sets of chromosomes, creating a tetraploid. When they grow, the four-chromosome-set fish breed with normal fish and give birth to a three-chromosome-set generation. The addition of the two extra chromosome sets can occur up to five hours after fertilization.
A three-chromosome-set trout grown in a hatchery will weigh 10 to 12 pounds after two years, he said, while a normal, two-chromosome-set fish from a hatchery will weigh 8 to 10 pounds. In the wild, a trout might make it to 5 pounds.