The fish express Green-fluorescent protein (GFP), I think. I know that there are definitely green-fluorescent mice, I've seen them. I think the original mice might have been blind though, because the GFP was expressed in the eye, and caused problems. The new versions may be better though. There are also GFP monkeys. I have worked with GFP, CFP (cyan), YFP (yellow), and a red fluorescent protein. The CFP and YFP are just mutants of GFP, which is originally from a Jellyfish. I always thought about making FP-expressing zebrafish, since they're available around work. Too late, I guess. I guess I can always make GFP fruitflies or frogs. Anybody want to buy a blue-fluorescent frog?
Interesting. Well, GFP is a fairly non-interactive protein and has been attached to lots of things for tracking purposes in the past. So that makes me feel a little better. Still, I don't like the ethics of doing this to animals "just because it looks cool", especially for the sake of those sacrificed in the research (the ones that didn't turn out well, such as blind green mice - unless you had the GFP attached to a protein for another project of interest). Don't mean to be a killjoy. One of my ideas for hypothetical research projects was to make a mutant with amino acids that would stack to make an orange fluorescent protein. Of course, it might take lots of trial and error. Or it might have already been done by now.
Isabel, I sympathize, but that sentiment sets you against thousands of years of animal husbandry and careful selection of crops, everything from the heads of lettuce we buy to our thanksgiving turkeys. I'm not really arguing, because sometimes I think those thousands of years have been kind of disgusting, with dogs that can't chew their own food and some fruit trees that can no longer support their own limbs (see similarity to a blind mouse).
theres a lengthy review of the fish on www.x-entertainment.com (not a p*rn site) the guy says that there are good and bad batches and the ones that he got didnt really glow at all unless they were under a blacklight. then again, a lot of fish glow under a blacklight.
