Biotech entrepreneurs yesterday unveiled plans to market the world's first genetically engineered pet — a tropical zebra fish infused with the gene of a sea anemone that makes it glow fluorescent red — touching off a debate over who should control the release of transgenic species.
A consortium of conservation and food-safety groups has asked federal regulators to intervene and halt the marketing of genetically altered pet fish nationwide.
Promoters of the trademarked GloFish said zebra fish, with or without the red fluorescent gene, are safe and have been test subjects for decades in biological-research labs throughout the United States.
They point out that despite innumerable escapes from breeding pens and labs over the years, zebra fish accustomed to the balmy waters of their native India and Bangladesh have never established a wild colony in the nontropical waters of the United States.
And if they glow fluorescent red, escapees are more likely to succumb to predators and thus even less likely to survive.
"A lot of the concern is: 'What if this fish gets out and interbreeds with wild populations?' " said Alan Blake, chief executive officer of Yorktown Technologies in Austin, Texas. "But there are no wild populations in the United States, despite being sold by the millions over the years."
Blake said his company, working with a pair of ornamental fish farms in Florida, holds the exclusive U.S. rights to the patented technology that was developed at the National University of Singapore. They plan to release the pet fish on the market Jan. 5.
Fluorescent fish are sold in Taiwan, Malaysia and Hong Kong but were rejected by the aquarium industry in Britain over concerns about genetically modified organisms.
In the United States, the National Academies of Science raised concerns over the potential of ecological havoc should a highly mobile, fast-breeding transgenic species escape into the wild.
The aquarium industry anticipates a big splash, with a boost in Christmas sales of fish tanks in anticipation of the novelty. This is the first genetically altered pet being produced for market, but researchers are working on others, including an allergen-free cat.
Zebra fish, which are 1-1/2 inches long and normally light gray with black stripes, are widely used in biomedical laboratories for research in genetics, molecular biology and vertebrate development. Geneticists began splicing the fluorescent genes of jellyfish into zebra-fish eggs to act as genetic markers or to "light up" in the presence of toxins.
Initially, researchers used the green fluorescent protein isolated from a jellyfish to produce green fish, and then altered the proteins to create yellow fish. More recently, they cloned the red fluorescent protein from the IndoPacific sea anemone to create red fish.
Yorktown Technologies, along with Segrest Farms and 5-D Tropical, said yesterday their first release will be a red zebra fish. Other colors will follow. The fish appear bright red under normal light and fluorescent under an ultraviolet light.
The fish farms are cultivating the fluorescent fish by the thousands, Blake said, and the partners are expecting demand for the fish — priced at about $5 apiece — to soar to the millions.
A collection of food-safety and conservation groups sent a letter this week to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) urging immediate intervention.
"If FDA somehow fails to regulate the proposal of Yorktown Technologies ... it will set a precedent for all other (genetically engineered) fish producers, and the floodgates will almost literally be opened," wrote Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of the Center for Food Safety.
Other groups signing on the letter include the Sierra Club, Greenpeace and the National Environmental Trust.
An FDA spokeswoman yesterday had no immediate comment.
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