Bigger, stronger, better: Fish transgenesis applications and methods

Abstract

Transgenesis has been applied to several species to benefit from them in different fields. As natural fish stocks decline and the world population increase, the application of transgenesis on commercial fish species takes more attention to reduce the limitations of aquaculture and meet the increasing food demand. Transgenesis has been applied to obtain a stable transgenic line with improved traits to date. In aquaculture, growth rate, cold resistance, and disease resistance of commercial fish species were enhanced by transgenesis and even one of them, AquAdvantage Salmon, took place markets in the North America. Also, transgenic fish were developed to evaluate the health impacts of chemicals in ecotoxicology and provide more options with new color variants in ornamental fisheries. Different approaches for generating transgenic fish have been performed successfully, but they still require some developments. More transgenic fish could take place in the market by developing more efficient techniques and informing consumers about these techniques to reduce their concerns. This review discusses the application fields of transgenic fish with examples and provides an overview of gene delivery techniques and transgenesis methods.