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Genetically-Engineered Death Carp
angkor writes "Kinda cool... Carp that produce only male offspring. They do something like this with sterile fruitflies as well."
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Allowing it to take years is fine. Having it take 10-20 years is far better than introducing another species to hunt the carp, then spending another 100 years trying to get rid of that species, and so on and so forth.
Patience is a virtue, especially in this case.
Baby Carp: "Daddy, where do babies come from?" Father Carp: "Well son, when a mommy carp and a daddy carp fall in love, they make little baby carp." Baby Carp: "Will I have babies someday, daddy?" Father Carp: "Not until humans descide to play god again, son."
I've been seeing alot of ppl complaining that this is "playing god"...
First off, carp have a tendency to kill off eveything in their eco-system (they use up all of the oxygen and they eat all of the vegitation) so endangered species are feeling the "pinch".
Second, these are most likely the offspring of bait!!!
Yes, fishing has caused this problem. They're just trying to put things back the way they were.
A similar but contagious immunocontraceptive technique is being tested on Aussie rabbits.
If that jumps to humans, we are screwed.
Play Command HQ online
"I'm not Henry the eighth I'm not, Henry the eigth I'm not."
Let's just hope this strain does not make it to asia. If I'm not mistaken, carp are their primary source of protien.
Not to mention the devastation this could cause the koi pond industry.
Thousands of years of selective breeding to get a sterile generation.
If voting were effective, it would be illegal by now.
Let's introduce a new species that will work.
Let's introduce a new predator that will work.
Let's genetically modify them, that will work.
Nothing can go wrong.
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
Enough about the male-only genetic engineering... Is the next step not to make it possible to genetically engineer postive female-only offspring every time? In this way, the technique could be applied to endangered species, resulting in a vast increase in repopulation rates. If the technology can make a speciaes extinct, so too can it bring a species fromt eh brink of extinction.
All I want is Death Carp with fricken Laser beams attached to there heads.
"Omigod, what if someone sneaks one of these carp to Europe? Are you going to endanger the species globally?" The short answer is no. If someone snuck a thousand of these things to Europe and released them into the Danube, it really wouldn't make a significant impact," he says.
Riiiight.
May we never see th
Are they.... ill-tempered?
((insert Dr. Evil pinky finger gesture))
Good judgment comes from experience.
Experience comes from bad judgment.
There are complicating factors -- like the hangers on from previous generations that are still fertile, and that with fewer carp eggs are hatched maybe more of them will survive, since they won't have as many other carp to compete with. Let's ignore those factors, and, for the sake or argument, work with thought carp that only breed once.
Your assumptions were 250 normal females, 200 normal males, and 50 males with the daughterless gene, correct?
Generation 1, 40% female, 40% male, 20% daughterless males
Generation 2, 33% female, 33% male, 33% daughterless males
Generation 3, 25% female, 25% male, 50% daughterless males
Generation 4, 8% female, 16% male, 75% daughterless males
Generation 5, 2% female, 4% male, 93% daughterless males
And each generation from generation 2 on, since there are less females there are fewer eggs laid, and therefore fewer fish reaching maturity. Ignoring those factors I mentioned above generation 3 would be down a third to 333 adult fish, 81 of which would be female. Generation 4 would be 162 adult fish, with about a dozen females. Generation 5 would be about two dozen adult fish.
Okay, they only plan to introduce males with the daughterless gene representing less than 1% of the current population, during the first year.
I don't have the right tools to do the math for an addition of 1% per year of males with the daughterless gene. Maybe when I get home.
I think we all know what is going to happen next:
Carp will spawn. Dr. Alan Grant will come out and preach to us that nature found a way. Nature always finds a way.
-Sean
I suppose it depends on how this would spread. Since this is a deliberate genetic failure, as opposed to a virus, chances are it's not contagious but only spread via offspring and not via contagion. Since they likely don't mate with other fish, this should be ok. The alteration should only take place at the fertilization or "sperm" level.
Of course, the problem here is (as mentioned before) the alterned offspring cannot produce female offsping. Thus, the altered species may breed itself out before affecting the wild species.