Mass production of genetically sterile mutant fish by germ-cell transplantation

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26252033
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Aquatic life science
• Research Institution: Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology
• Principal Investigator: Yoshizaki Goro 東京海洋大学, 学術研究院, 教授 (70281003)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 北野 健 熊本大学, 自然科学研究科, 准教授 (40336219) ; 吉浦 康寿 国立研究開発法人水産研究・教育機構, その他部局等, 研究員 (90372052)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 不妊魚 / メダカ / トラフグ / ゲノム編集 / FSH受容体

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The escape of captive fish is a serious global problem, as some of the farmed fish are highly domesticated. While the adoption of sterile fish seeds is desirable for avoiding genetic pollution, the mass production of sterile seeds is difficult. We employed medaka that were mutants for FSHR, produced by TILLING, as the female homozygous mutants are completely sterile. Since the homozygous males are fertile, production of sterile seeds can be achieved by mating heterozygous females with homozygous XX sex-reversed males. However, only half of the resulting F1 individuals are homozygous. To overcome this problem, we applied germ cell transplantation. We transplanted XX spermatogonia isolated from sex-reversed mutants homozygous for FSHR into sterile triploid female recipients. The resulting surrogate females produced only FSHR-mutant eggs.Thus, we confirmed that germ cell transplantation is a powerful technique for mass production of genetically sterile fish.

Free Research Field

水族発生工学