Green fluorescent protein (GFP) transgenic fish and their applications

The coupling of the GFP reporter system with the optical clarity of embryogenesis in model fish such as zebrafish and medaka is beginning to change the picture of transgenic fish study. Since the advent of first GFP transgenic fish in 1995, GFP transgenic fish technology have been quickly employed in many areas such as analyses of gene expression patterns and tissue/organ development, dissection of promoters/enhancers, cell lineage and axonal pathfinding, cellular localization of protein products, chimeric embryo and nuclear transplantation, cell sorting, etc. The GFP transgenic fish also have the potentials in analysis of upstream regulatory factors, mutagenesis screening and characterization, and promoter/enhancer trap. Our own studies indicate that GFP transgenic fish may become a new source of novel variety of ornamental fish. Efforts are also being made in our laboratory to turn GFP transgenic fish into biomonitoring organisms for surveillance of environmental pollution.