FISH GLOW GREEN AFTER GENETIC ENGINEERING

(An Update on Genetic Engineering)

Ronnie Z. Valenciano Jr. BSE 4B

What problem does it addresses? It’s the endocrine disruptors. These are

substances that are found in:

a. industrial productsb. female contraceptives

The chemicals mimic the actions of sexual hormones, resulting in various reproductive problems in both people and animals.

What does it do?

Fluorescence helps track what pollutants do to the body.

A genetically engineered fish that glows green from the inside out is helping illuminate what pollutants do inside the body.

What does previous research tells about this

chemical? This chemicals cause:a. Fish to change genderb. In people, this have been associated

with lower sperm counts and breast and testicular cancers

This is spearheaded by Charles Tyler at the U.K.'s University of Exeter.

How it is done?

Put genetic elements within the zebrafish [embryos].

Exposed the zebrafish to varying levels of chemicals known to affect the hormone estrogen.

Then used a microscope to see which of the small fish's organs glowed—and thus responded—to the chemicals.

What are the findings? The heart glows particularly in

response to bisphenol A. The chemicals light up other parts

of the fish's anatomy, including its eyes and skeletal muscles.

Its often been assumed that these chemicals impact the liver or testes or ovaries, but in these fish they’ve identified them in many different tissues, including parts of the brain.

Limitation of fluorescent technology

The fluorescent technology is limited to fish younger than six days old, because their skin has yet to develop pigmentation that would interfere with observing the fluorescence.

What’s the next development?

The next phase is breeding these fish with a strain that lacks pigment in the skin, which would allow the team to observe the fluorescent reactions in adult fish as well.

Zebrafish glow green under the microscope.

Reference: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/04/120423-fish-glowing-pollution-bpa-environment-science/#ng_comments