COASTAL 



TIDINGS 



Getting Hooked 



on Carteret 

 County Fishing 



Want to know whether the puppy 

 drum or speckled trout are biting in 

 Carteret County? 



Now the answer is a toll-free call 



away. 



The newly formed Cape Lookout 

 Sportfishing Association has started a 

 fishing report hotline that lets callers get 

 up-to-the-minute, all-day information 

 about saltwater fishing in the area. It 

 gives sound, pier, inshore and blue 

 water reports. To access it, dial 800/251- 

 1442 or 223-1442 in Carteret County. 

 You can also order a free color brochure 

 on fishing in Carteret County at that 

 number. 



The Cape Lookout Sportfishing 

 Association aims to promote the 

 Carteret County business community 

 year-round through all types of recre- 

 ational fishing. E —D.S.B. 



Wanted: Sunken 

 Living Room; 

 No Skylight 

 Needed 



On the ocean floor, shipwrecks 

 often turn into prime real estate. 



Marine life gradually moves into 

 these underwater condos, attracted by 

 the honeycomb of places to hide from 

 predators. The smaller creatures attract 

 larger creatures, which attract still 

 larger creatures, and soon there's an 

 entire neighborhood. 



And beautifying everything, a 

 coating of anemones and corals takes 

 shape over the wreck. 



So, location, location, location 

 might be the maxim on land. But 

 opportunity is what counts under- 

 water. □ —D.S.B. 



Around the Sea Grant Network: 



Fish Gene Shows Promise 

 in Animal Genetic Engineering, 

 Human Gene Therapy 



A gene that stopped functioning 

 millions of years ago in ancestors of the 

 salmon family is now awake. Minnesota 

 Sea Grant scientists have converted the 

 gene, called a transposon, into a new 

 DNA delivery 

 system that can 

 be used to 

 transport normal 

 genes into 

 genetically 

 damaged cells 

 that cause such 

 illnesses as 

 hemophilia or 

 cancer. The 

 discovery was 

 based on 

 Minnesota Sea 

 Grant researcher 

 Perry Hackett's 

 work to geneti- 

 cally engineer 

 faster-growing 

 fish for aquacul- 

 ture. 



In an attempt 

 to develop a 

 better way to 

 move engineered 

 genes into the 



chromosomes of fish cells, Hackett and 

 his colleagues Zsuzsanna Izvak and 

 Zoltan Ivies began studying 

 transposons. They could not find an 

 active transposon gene in modern fish. 

 But their research did indicate that 

 Atlantic salmon and rainbow trout had 

 an inactive transposon that stopped 

 functioning more than 1 million years 

 ago due to mutations. They resurrected 

 and rebuilt the transposon, removing the 

 mutations. 



In laboratory culture dishes, the 



transposon carried new gene sequences 

 past natural barriers into the nucleus of 

 human, zebrafish and mouse cells and 

 inserted them into the DNA. Izvak 

 named the transposon system "Sleeping 

 Beauty." Hackett 

 sees it as a tool 

 that could be 

 used for many 

 purposes. 

 Already, a 

 number of 



••\«Str . 



companies are 

 interested in 

 buying rights to 

 use the process 

 in agriculture, 

 pharmaceuticals 

 and biotherapy. 



Most human 

 gene therapy 

 developments 

 have relied on 

 viruses, which 

 are modified to 

 become harmless 

 while they deliver 

 new genes to 

 cells. However, 

 some researchers 

 fear that the 

 inactive viruses could combine to create 

 a dangerous hybrid. Hackett's develop- 

 ment may match the viruses' efficiency 

 in inserting chromosomes without 

 presenting the potential hazards. Another 

 major application of the technology, says 

 Hackett, may be gene discovery. "This 

 technique can be used to find new genes 

 never identified before as well as to 

 define new roles of previously known 

 genes that are important for the growth, 

 development and health of vertebrate 

 animals," he says. EJ 



4 AUTUMN 1998 



