万花筒 2010-03-22&03-23 见过六块腹肌的鱼吗？（在线收听）

It’s taken ten years of experiments. But researches at the University of Rhode Island have finally perfected a fish with 6-pack abs, and muscular shoulders. Professor Terry Bradley said his fish have 15% to 20% more muscle mass than normal trout. Bulk could achieved it by inhibiting myostatin, a protein that controls muscle growth.

“Myostatin in humans and mammals are shown to regulate muscle growth. Question is, what it is doing in fish. We’ve been able to produce transgenic fish that are expressing protein that inhibit myostatin and other related factors. There was tremendous increase on muscle mass in a fish. ”

Bradley and a team of graduate students spent 500 hours injecting 20,000 rainbow trout eggs with various DNA types designed to inhibit myostatin. Of the eggs that hatched, 300 carried the genes that led to increased muscle growth. After two years, most had what Bradley calls, "the six-pack ab"effect.

“We call it six-pack. We think it very reminiscent of the double muscling that we see in Belgian blue cattle. So the fish actually have what appeared to be six-pack abs we see in humans. Even though fish don’t have abdominal muscles.”

The first generation were then spawned, producing offspring that carried the gene for bigger muscles. Bradley says his fish may provide the boost that the commercial fishing industry needs.

If we were able to get these fish to the point where they would be accepted and could be grown. It has tremendous implications in increasing the mass of the fish, and increasing the profit ability of fish-caught.

According to the research team, an estimated 500,000 metric tons of rainbow trout are raised each year in aquaculture facilities in the US and Europe. Bradley believes his fish could provide a boost to the industry by allowing fish farmers to grow larger fish without increasing the amount of food the stocks are fed.

As for whether or not consumers want to dine on a fish with 6-pack abs, that’s one question that we’ll have to wait for regulatory approval.

For Reuters.com, I’m Julie Gordon.