Japan scientists breed salmon from surrogates

TOKYO (AFP) - Japanese scientists have successfully bred a type of salmon using surrogate parents of a different species, in a breakthrough that could help preserve endangered creatures, the chief researcher said on Tuesday.

Researchers froze the testes of the yamame salmon, a fish indigenous to Japan that lives its entire life in rivers, before extracting primordial germ cells and implanting them into otherwise sterile rainbow trout hatchlings.

These primordial cells, called spermatogonia, were used by the fish's growing body to develop fully functional sperm in males and viable eggs in females, said Mr Goro Yoshizaki at Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology.

The eggs and sperm can be fused in vitro to produce a healthy yamame salmon, he told AFP.