Salmon Gives Birth To Trout.

mishmash writes "Researchers in Japan have created trout whose fathers were salmon, 'they implanted tissue from trout embryos into salmon embryos; and when the salmon became adults and mated, they produced trout.' Jurrassic Park just came a step closer. The story is also at Nature, where the scientists actually discuss using the technology for reviving extinct species."

Had to say it....

[macdaddy357]

...There's something fishy about this!

Re:Had to say it....

[saden1]

It would be interesting to know what Kilgore Trout thinks about all of this.

Good thing salmon die at spawning then

[SmallFurryCreature]

or there would be a lot of explaining to do by the moms.

Anyway wouldn't it be smarter the other way around? Last time I checked the menu salmon sells for a hell of lot less then trout.

Sounds like a Far Side comic.

[Spudley]

This sounds like something out of a Far Side comic. Gary Larson would have had a field day with this. I can picture it already...

Sturgeon Farmers will watch this

[scupper]

Outfits like Sturgeon AquaFarms [sturgeonaquafarms.com] and Stolt Sea Farm [stoltseafarm.com] will be watching this. I know US Sturgeon farmers have been pushing for a ban [sfgate.com] on Caspian Sea Beluga Sturgeon, and I think they are an endangered species. If there's going to be VC pushed into funding more cross species embryo research, I'd bet sturgeon farmers will be at the front of the line.

Excerpt from BBC piece [bbc.co.uk]:

"The obvious one is the sturgeon, which only become reproductively mature around the age of ten," he said, "so perhaps you could have them reared by another species which develops much faster."

Summary is DUMB, sensationalistic

[nusratt]

"Jurrassic Park just came a step closer."

Oh, really?
The Nature article clearly says at the beginning:
"The technique involves cells called primordial germ cells (PGCs), which are found in embryos."
And later:
"theoretically, even if a species **goes** extinct, we can transplant the cells into a closely related species."

Where is John Hammond (JPark founder) going to get dino *embryos*?

And, OTOH, if the "some day" merely refers to using DNA (versus PGCs), then how is this news?

Re:Summary is DUMB, sensationalistic

[tsm_sf]

I think that was possibly an allusion to the Jarkov Mammoth [nau.edu] found in '99? Sounds like the scientists are getting slightly annoyed with all the cloning questions, tho.

Ah, yes

[0x0d0a]

"Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries!"

Salmon do not give birth

[bill_of_wrongs]

they lay eggs like most other fish.

Mammoth

[memco]

Perhaps they can finally do http://www.exn.ca/mammoth/Cloning.cfm [www.exn.ca]something similar with the mammoth? It'll be interesting to see how this technique develops.

They're the same species!

[Anonymous Freak]

Salmon and Trout are the same species, just different subspecies. Is this really surprising? (In fact, Steelhead Salmon is the exact same fish as Rainbow Trout. The only difference is that Steelhead swim to the ocean, Rainbow Trout stay in rivers. Really. http://www.aps.uoguelph.ca/~ontaqua/name.html [uoguelph.ca]

This is about as surprising as a Calico cat giving birth to a Siamese cat. Extremely unusual, but not a huge deal.

Oh, I see. The story talks about DIFFERENT species. Well, then call them by their full names. Just saying "salmon" and "trout" doesn't say much.

News Flash: Retriever gives birth to Terrier! :-p

Re:They're the same species!

[belmolis]

According to the Nature article, the trout concerned is Oncorhynchus mykiss. The salmon is Oncorhynchus masou. Same genus, different species.

Re:They're the same species!

[PSandusky]

They're not different subspecies at all. They're the same genera, but the trivial names are different. They are, in fact, different species. A subspecies would have an extra trivial name -- for example, Tursiops truncatus gilli. The differences between the species and subspecies would then be the differences between Tursiops truncatus and T. truncatus gilli. (Species name, at least the way I learned it, is the combination of the genus and trivial names; hence, Tursiops truncatus is the species name for the

Re:They're the same species!

[Anonymous Freak]

Yeah, my rant was more about not noting the difference in the article. (Hence the second part of my post.) I'm just not a fan of ambiguously misleading information on the front page. (Oh, wait, this is Slashdot, I should know better.)

Re:They're the same species!

[sydres]

actually steelhead don't necessarily swim to the ocean they also swim to large lakes like they do here in western new york they are called onodroumous they are only steelheads because they lack the rainbow pigments of river run rainbows they are fun to catch. they are also in the same family as the pikes (muskies, northerns, pickerels) soft finned fish, with big teeth. sorry that was borderline off topic

Oh man oh man

[tachyonmkg]

I can't wait until they make pigs that give birth to bald eagles or humpback whales that shoot pandas out of their vaginas.

Re:Lucy...

[sprior]

Someone obviously didn't get the reference! Normally an unexpected birth would have the mother with a lot of explaining to do to the surprised father - hence the I Love Lucy reference...