Here i tried to discuss the genetic modification of transgenic salmon, its history, process, controversial issues of genetic salmon etc.

1. Prepared by
MOMIN
Master’s Student
Department of Aquaculture
Faculty of Fisheries
Istanbul University
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Momin_Momin
mominm89@ogr.iu.edu.tr
Current Status of
Transgenic Salmon
(2016)

2. Nearly twenty years ago, AquaBounty Technologies Inc. began the
application process to obtain Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
approval for a genetically engineered Atlantic salmon.1
On November 19, 2015, the FDA approved AquaBounty
Technologies’ application to produce AquAdvantage Salmon.2
This is the first GE animal that has been approved for human
consumption in the United States.
FDA has concluded that AquAdvantage Salmon is as safe as food
from non-GE salmon and determined that there are no significant food
safety hazards or risks associated with the product.
Introduction

3. TRANSGENIC
FISH
• Transgenic fish or genetically modified fish(GM fish) are
genetically modified organism. The DNA of the fish is
modified using genetic engineering techniques.
• Aim is to introduce a new trait to fish.
• GM fish has been approved by FDA.

4. History of Genetic Modification
• Genetic modification involves the insertion or deletion of genes and was
first performed with bacteria in 1973.
• The 1990s brought about the first approvals for commercial-scale genetic
modification of plants.
• As approved by the FDA, genetically modified salmon is the first
commercially available animals for food.

5. AquAdvantage
Salmon
 Transgenic salmon consist of DNA from both the Pacific Chinook Salmon
and an eel-like fish, called the Ocean Pout, which allows it to keep pumping
out growth hormone year-round.
 Natural salmon do not produce growth hormone in the cold, winter
weather, and can take up to 7 years (although usually 3 years) to reach
reproductive age.
 With year-round growth hormone, the modified fish reach full size in less
than half the time, making it cheaper and more efficient for fish farms.

7. Chinook salmon
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Salmoniformes
Family: Salmonidae
Genus: Oncorhynchus
Species: O. tshawytscha
Ocean pout
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Perciformes
Family: Zoarcidae
Genus: Zoarces
Species: Z. americanus
Atlantic salmon
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Salmoniformes
Family: Salmonidae
Genus: Salmo
Species: S. salar

9. Microinjection
refers to the process of using a glass
micropipette to inject a liquid
substance at a microscopic or
borderline macroscopic level. The
target is often a living cell but may also
include intercellular space.

10. Regulatory sequences from ocean pout AFP gene &
coding domain from chinook salmon GH-1 cDNA
Selection
Milt
Non-transgenic Progeny
Transgenic Founder
Transgene DNA
Microinjection
Fertilized
Microinjected
Eggs
Promoter TerminatorGH cDNA
TATA
TAGATG
AATAA
////
1989
1992
1994
1996
1998
2000
2002
Microinject
P
1
F 1
F 2
F 3
F 4
F 5
2004
2006
2008
F 6
F 7
F 8

11. salmon egg upwellers
collecting milt from male salmon; collecting
eggs from female salmon
Eyed eggs

12. Eyed salmon eggs on well plate

13. 1. Product Identity
Triploid hemizygous, all-female Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) bearing a single copy of the α-form of the
opAFP-GHc2 rDNA construct at the α-locus in the EO-1α lineage.
2. Claim
Significantly more of these Atlantic salmon grow to at least 100 g within 2700 deg C days than their
comparators.
3. Limitations for Use
These Atlantic salmon are produced as eyed-eggs for grow-out only in the FDA-approved physically-
contained fresh water culture facility
Product Definition forAquAdvantage Salmon

16. Threats of
Engineered Salmon:
(a)Interbreeding
(b)Disturbance of habitat or displacement of wild stocks.
(c)Spread of Diseases i. g., bacteria, viruses, parasites etc.
(d)Ecological impacts
68% of all fish extinctions in the last century in North America have arisen as a
consequences of introductions of foreign species (3Miller et al. 1989; Fisheries
14:22-38).

17. Objection:
“The danger is, if the fish gets out, it's a lot more
aggressive. It feeds more. It could outcompete not
only salmon, but any other local native fish that are in
there, because these engineered fish, they actually,
not only feed more, but they search in many
different places more than the regular salmon. So,
that could have an impact.”
Michael Hansen, senior scientist at Consumers Union

18. The AquAdvantage®Technique
All females.
Sterile.
Inland tanks; physical barriers between tanks and
open waters.
Lack of ability to survive in wild; altered feeding
habits.

19. Opponents argue:
AquaBounty has conceded that up to
five percent of the salmon eggs
produced from genetically modified
Salmon could be fertile.

20. Environmental benefits of GM Salmon:
Could reduce the strain of fishing
on the natural salmon populations.
Health benefits of eating salmon:
reduction of heart attacks.

21. Background of AquAdvantage® Salmon

22. Invention of GE Salmon:
• The advantage that Drs. Choy Hew and Garth Fletcher, Aqua Bounty Farms'
founding scientists, originally set out to develop was not rapid growth. It was
cold tolerance. They wanted to develop Atlantic salmon that could survive
Canada's cold winter waters. They became intrigued with the idea of
transplanting into salmon a naturally occurring gene that prevents northern
fish such as winter flounder and ocean pout from freezing.
• They could not able to success against water temperatures approaching zero
degrees Celsius.
• But, as often happens in science, a good idea led to a better one.

23. Primary attempt:
• Antifreeze proteins are produced mostly in the winter.
• Hew and Fletcher tried to link the promoter and terminator
portions of AFP gene to the salmon GH gene, they could perhaps
get the salmon to produce its own growth hormone throughout the
winter, a season when this function is usually shut down.
• They originally estimated 20% or 25% faster growing than standard
salmon.

24. Impact of Antifreeze Protein
• Dr. Hew believes that the 400% to 600% leap in growth rate
occurs for two reasons.
First, GH production continues in AquAdvantage salmon at a relatively
high level throughout the winter.
Second, under the influence of the AFP gene, GH is being produced in
the livers of AquAdvantage salmon while in other salmon it produce only
in Pituitary.

26. Operations:
• The AquAdvantage Salmon will be produced and imported into the United States.4
• AquaBounty plans to produce eyed eggs at a specific facility on Prince Edward
Island (PEI), Canada.5
• Eggs will be shipped to Panama and reared to market size in land-based facilities.
The grow-out facility is based in the Panamanian highlands to reduce the risk of
salmon escapes and interactions with wild salmon populations.
• Salmon will be processed in Panama before being shipped to the United States for
retail sale. No live fish will be imported into the United States.

27. Are all fishes
reproductively Sterile??
• AquaBounty has stipulated that they will produce only sterile
female GE Atlantic salmon by a process that manipulates
salmonid reproductive biology.The production of monosex
salmon is considered to be 100% effective.
• In addition, pressure treatment of the eggs induces triploidy (an
extra set of chromosomes), which results in sterility.
• In commercial scale production, the rate of sterile female is more
than 98%. (Bodnar, A. 2010)

28. Fish with access GH: Risk
for human consumption???
• The amount of growth hormone in the tissues of the salmon shows that the
level of production is entirely within the normal range found in wild salmon.
• That is an advantage from the perspective of consumer acceptability.
• But it is not so important from the scientific perspective cause GH of fish is
not metabolized by the human body, it simply passes right through.

29. Why we need GE Salmon?
• For the aquaculture industry, salmon is a desirable candidate for genetic
engineering because of high consumer demand for salmon products.
• Production costs decreased with improvements in broodstock quality,
feed, disease management, and other production factors. During the period
of rapid expansion of salmon farming, prices for both cultured and wild
salmon have generally trended downward.

30. Production andTrade
• In 1996, worldwide salmon farm production exceeded commercial harvest
of wild salmon.6 In 2013, aquaculture production of salmon, trouts, and
smelts was 3.177 million metric tons (mmt), with a value of $17.628
billion.7 Production of Atlantic salmon, the main species of this group, was
2.087 mmt, with a value of $12.904 billion.8
• Norway led production, followed by Chile and the United Kingdom (Table 1).
In 2013, farmed production ofAtlantic salmon in the United States was
18,685 metric tons, with a value of $105.4 million.

32. Is it possible to differentiate flesh of GM Salmon?

33. GE Salmon vs Non-GE
Salmon
• The AquAdvantage Salmon also increases the efficiency of salmon production
because of faster growth and better feeding efficiency than non-GEAtlantic
salmon.
• GE Atlantic salmon reach smolt size* more quickly than non-GE Atlantic
salmon and grow to a market size of 1 to 3 kilograms in 16 to 18 months
instead of the typical three years.9
• Although AquAdvantage Salmon grow more quickly, they do not reach an
overall larger size than non-GE Atlantic salmon.

34. According to AquaBounty, analysis of AquAdvantage Salmon has shown
that they consume 25% less feed to achieve the same size as non-GE Atlantic
salmon.10
Characteristics exhibited by GE salmon include accelerated growth,
elevated metabolism, greater feeding motivation and efficiency, increased
aggression and foraging activity, and reduced anti-predator response.11

35. Controversy

37. Conclusion:
• No doubt GE Salmon is a tremendous outbreak in Aquaculture
Biotechnology.
• More or less 2% of chance to be non-sterile female could be a major threat
for wild salmon.
• Still we do not know the affect of genetically engineered fish inside human
body.
• We need time to conclude aboutTransgenic salmon.

38. References:
1. Upton, H. F. and Cowan. T. 2015. Genetically Engineered Salmon. Congressional Research Service. 1-
26p (www.crs.gov)
2. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Food and Drug Administration (FDA),
“AquAdvantage Salmon,” at
http://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/DevelopmentApprovalProcess/GeneticEngineering/
GeneticallyEngineeredAnimals/ucm280853.htm
3. Miller, R. R., Williams, J. D., Williams, J. E. 1989. Extinctions of North American Fishes During the past
Century, Fisheries, 14:6, 22-38
4. AquaBountyTechnologies, Inc., at http://www.AquaBounty.com/.
5. Questions have been raised concerning AquaBounty’s approval by Environment Canada for producing
and transporting the GE salmon eggs. See http://lists.cban.ca/pipermail/cban-e-news/2011-
October/000346.html.
6. United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Fishery Statistical Collections, Global Aquaculture
Production, Accessed November 30, 2015, at http://www.fao.org/fishery/statistics/global-
aquaculture-production/en. Hereinafter cited as FAO Global Aquaculture Production 2015. In this
case, value is the revenue obtained by the aquaculturalist from the first buyer of the product.

39. 7. FAO, Fisheries and Aquaculture Department, Fisheries Statistics and Information, Global
Aquaculture Production 1950-2013 Online Query, at http://www.fao.org/fishery/statistics/global-
aquaculture-production/ query/en.
8. National Marine Fisheries Service, U.S. Foreign Trade, Imports of Fishery Products, Online Query, at
http://www.st.nmfs.noaa.gov/commercial-fisheries/foreign-trade/raw-data/imports-exports-
annual#1.
9. According to the Development Fund, the Norwegian aquaculture industry has developed strains of
salmon through selective breeding that grow as fast or faster than AquAdvantage Salmon. See at
http://www.utviklingsfondet.no/files/ uf/documents/GMO-Salmon_Fast_Growing_Hype_web.pdf.
10. “As Final U.S. decision Nears, A Lively Debate on GM Salmon,” Environment 360, April 18, 2013, at
http://e360.yale.edu/feature/as_final_us_decision_nears_a_lively_debate_on_gm_salmon/2641/.
Hereinafter cited as Environment 360, 2013.
11. FDA, AquAdvantage Salmon, Environmental Assessment, November 12, 2015, p. 34, at
http://www.fda.gov/downloads/AnimalVeterinary/DevelopmentApprovalProcess/GeneticEngineeri
ng/GeneticallyEngineeredAnimals/ UCM466218.pdf. Hereinafter cited as Environmental
Assessment, 2015.

40. Acknowledgment:
Dave Conley, MSc
Director, Corporate Communications
AquaBountyTechnologies, Inc.
www.aquabounty.com
T. +1 613 294 3078
E. dconley@aquabounty.com