SBIR Phase I: Transgenically Mediated Sterility by Targeted Germ Cell Ablation

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will investigate a new transgenic approach to induce sterility in economically important species, with initial applications in aquaculture. This approach will evaluate the potential to produce transgenic lines of fish capable of passing on the transgene to subsequent generations through the male lineage while the progeny of transgenic female would be sterile. This technology should be widely applicable to multiple fish species, other vertebrates, and invertebrates. Zebrafish will serve as a primary model and will be used to document sterility at the cellular and molecular level. Histological and morphological study of the gonad structure in transgenic adults will confirm functional sterility. We will also confirm that this approach has broad application by demonstrating feasibility in salmon embryos. The broader impacts of this research address a need for improved performance and reproductive confinement in aquaculture that can be achieved by induced sterility. This technology should prove applicable to multiple fishes to prevent gene flow to wild populations, to prevent colonization of new habitats by farmed non-native species, and to increase culture performance by preventing loss of energy and condition to gonad development and sexual differentiation. Sterilization methods will also be a prerequisite for the application of transgenic improvement to aquaculture species. Besides its application in aquaculture, this technology should prove broadly applicable to multiple species and could have additional applications in other economically relevant arenas.