Genes. DOI: 10.3390 / genes11070753 “width =” 800 “height =” 480 “/>A team of researchers working at the Hungarian National Center for Agricultural Research and Innovation, the Research Institute for Fisheries and Aquaculture, has accidentally bred a new type of fish, called by some observers as swordfish, it is a cross between an American spoonbill and a Russian sturgeon. In his article published in the magazine. Genes, the group describes accidental fish farming and what they learned by doing so.
In the past, scientists and others have bred animals of different species for various reasons, from research to utility: Mules (crossbreed between donkeys and horses) are considered to have beneficial traits of both animals and hares (a cross between lions and tigers) have helped researchers understand their respective genetic backgrounds. In this new effort, the researchers claim that they were not trying to create a new type of fish, but were trying to apply gynegenesis (a type of reproduction in which sperm from a creature is used to fertilize an egg, but its DNA is ignored. ) using the American spoonbill and the Russian sturgeon. To their surprise, the eggs produced fish that grew into adults.
By studying the hundreds of hatchlings produced, which some on the Internet have called sturddlefish, the researchers found that they fell into one of three main categories: those that looked mostly like their mothers, those that looked mostly like their fathers, and those that inherited characteristics of both parents.
Both parent fish are endangered, and would have had no chance to reproduce in the wild, as their names suggest, the paddlefish lives in the US, and the sturgeon in Russia. Scientists consider them both to be “living fossils” because they haven’t changed much in a very long period of time. The researchers point out that their last common ancestor is believed to date back to 184 million years ago, when dinosaurs still roamed the Earth. They also point out that the two species of fish have more in common than many might think: they both have spiral valvular intestines, for example, and scaleless skin and cartilaginous endoskeletons. The researchers also believe that the offspring, like most crossbred offspring, is infertile.
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Jenő Káldy et al. Hybridization of Russian sturgeon (Acipenser gueldenstaedtii, Brandt and Ratzeberg, 1833) and American spoonbill fish (Polyodon spathula, Walbaum 1792) and evaluation of their progeny, Genes (2020). DOI: 10.3390 / genes11070753
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Citation: Researchers accidentally breed sturddlefish (2020, July 21) retrieved on July 21, 2020 from https://phys.org/news/2020-07-accidentally-sturddlefish.html
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