Production of Trout Offspring from Triploid Salmon Parents

Many salmonids have become at risk of extinction. For teleosts whose eggs cannot be cryopreserved, developing techniques other than egg cryopreservation to save genetic resources is imperative. In this study, spermatogonia from rainbow trout were intraperitoneally transplanted into newly hatched sterile triploid masu salmon. Transplanted trout spermatogonia underwent spermatogenesis and oogenesis in male and female recipients, respectively. At 2 years after transplantation, triploid salmon recipients only produced trout sperm and eggs. With use of these salmon as parents, we successfully produced only donor-derived trout offspring. Thus, by transplanting cryopreserved spermatogonia into sterile xenogeneic recipients, we can generate individuals of a threatened species.