Salmon Gives Birth to Trout in Scientific Leap That Gives Hope to Endangered Fish

August 5, 2004
By Steve Connor Science Editor

Biology textbooks will never quite be the same again. Scientists have altered the reproductive organs of salmon so that they produce trout offspring.

A "germ" tissue from young trout was put into young salmon so that when the salmon became sexually mature they produced the sperm and eggs of trout. In a study published today in the journal Nature, the researchers report that they have successfully used the technique to breed healthy rainbow trout from salmon parents.

link to story here, john

news.independent.co.uk...

Wow, Cats from Dogs. Wonder if it works with humans to produce advanced humans.

Well, they have already made spider silk come out of goat utters, but this is almost literally the scientific breakthrough of the century. Imagine the possibilities? What about a gorilla giving birth to humans? What if we could even construct our own babies? We'd be able to choose facial features and such for our babies.

And as for advanced humans, well, I think we'd be able to manipulate such things as height and such, but not IQ.

Originally posted by Homyrrh
Well, they have already made spider silk come out of goat utters, but this is almost literally the scientific breakthrough of the century. Imagine the possibilities? What about a gorilla giving birth to humans? What if we could even construct our own babies? We'd be able to choose facial features and such for our babies.

And as for advanced humans, well, I think we'd be able to manipulate such things as height and such, but not IQ.

I don't want to downplay it too much but, its just a tissue transplant. Its not like this is a viable population. They 9effectively) took a salmon, ripped out its reproductive organs (there's just no gentle way of saying that, is there?) and transplanted a trouts sex organs, thus yeilding, understandably enough, a trout. Trout eggs + trout sperm = more trout

Not to say its not wild and crazy, having one animal run around keeping another animals reproductive organs alive.

There is a parasitic decapod called sacculina that attacks male sea crabs, punctures their exoskeleton, inject their own bodys into the crab, infest it, chemically castrate it, and thereby 'feminize it". These castrated male crabs start to act like female crabs, grow a 'brood pouch' that fills with the offspring of this parasite. When the young develop, the crab even 'broods' them, waving its claws around them to help them disperse.

Uhm, i just added that because this article reminded me of it.

Originally posted by Homyrrh
What about a gorilla giving birth to humans?

How is that going to be parctical?. What kind of a parent would want to see their child come out of a gorilla?. I believe that the gorilla might even be protective of this human child it birthed. I know not to take it seriously, an ape giving birth to humans but things like that just push to many ethical boundries in my opinion.