>

one more step until a crocaduck
TL;DR they're trying to use alligator DNA to make catfish more resistant to infections in fish farms. >

Exactly - they'll be "nearly identical to the farm-raised catfish sold in grocery stores".
Unless they aren't. >

Life, uh, finds a way. >

Bob Ross as a geneticist:  "Happy little accidents" >

I always wondered, growing up, where my dad got that quote from.. >

Mom said I was a happy accident. Dad told me I was planned. Either Dad is trying to spare my feelings in some way or it is a testament to how poor my parent’s communication was back then. I find both explanations equally plausible. >

Schrödinger's pregnancy? >

Schrödinger's condom (the pregnancy was observable). >

Southerners must be looking forward to going catfish noodling in hard mode. >

Time to level up >

'Bama finally got smart enough to science and this is what they did >

Wait til they figure out how to reverse the deleterious effects of inbreeding >

Mother of God >

Yeah, she can bang the son of God. >

Can we call them Ali-cats for short? >

I will have one Cattigator >

Coming up, valued customer!  Have you signed our liability waiver and non-disclosure agreement already or should I bring that right over to you? >

Sounds like a direct to video horror movie plot >

Never go back to alligator-catfish lake >

Transgenic, not hybrids. Maybe that word is too complicated for Alabama? >

I ain’t eatin no woke TRANS fish!!!
/s if you haven’t figured that out yet. >

But Marrying your first cousin is a tradition >

Russia is the Motherland, Germany is the Fatherland, and Alabama is the Kissin' Cousinland. >

Dear God, they didn't mix in any raptor DNA did they? >

No, just the complete DNA of a frog to fill in the holes >

Wait, really? >

Sharktapus has entered the chat. >

Those movies are worth the watch just for the terrible CGI. >

i loved drink watching mega shark vs giant octopus. lol. >

I'm on board. Alligator taste better than catfish lol. >

As an ex Cajun my first thought was hungry >

Hillbilly Frankenstein. >

I for one welcome our catigator overloads. >

You say sterile but nature always finds a way. >

163 comments and not one of you called it a Gatfish. >

When they can engineer them to carry a glock, I'll call them gatfish... >

Same thing with salmon and eels >

Definition of "hybrid" - The offspring of genetically dissimilar parents or stock, especially the offspring produced by breeding plants or animals of different varieties, species, or races.
As u/jungles_fury noted, the genetically modified catfish are not hybrids. >

Half cat alligator half fish🎵🎶 >

The article mentioned catfish being sold in grocery stores "nationwide" but that's not really the case. I mostly lived in Oregon and D.C. and you generally only find it at Southern BBQ restaurants, though seafood shops sometimes have it. To be clear, I have always lived in very urban areas, so I don't know what's going on in rural areas. But because of logistical supply channels, I would be very surprised if there was much catfish.
I saw this on google:

Texans consume more catfish than residents of four other southern states combined. The study concluded the residents of Texas then consumed nearly 109 million pounds of catfish a year. That’s more than the residents of Alabama (30 million), Arkansas (18 million), Louisiana (28 million) and Mississippi (18 million) combined (94 million pounds). >

Having been to Texas a few times, I knew they weren’t the sharpest tools in the shed. But this really confirms my suspicions. Do they not have any other non-garbage fish in Texas? >

Still half asleep, I read this as "alligator-crawfish hybrid"... >

Just imagine the canasta solos >

Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn't stop to think if they should. >

I wouldn't want to be noodling for catfish when one of those showed up. >

Shit, have you seen how big a catfish can get already!? >

So long as they are also domesticated. If you can't pet them then you shouldn't be making them in a lab. >

Do people not watch sci-fi movies????? >

Did anyone immediately think of the Catgators from Avatar: the Last Airbender that were kept as pets by the Foggy Swamp Tribe of waterbenders? >

There is no Catagators in Ba Sing Se >

and they're going to release them into the everglades? >

Wake up! They are trying to make a Garnado!! >

Grabbling will never be the same… >

“To prevent this, they used the CRISPR gene-editing tool to remove a catfish gene associated with reproduction. They replaced it with the alligator gene. With these genes swapped, the hybrid catfish are unable to reproduce.”
In the immortal words of Dr. Ian Malcolm “…life, uh, finds a way.” >

"I'll be in my bunk." -- SyFy, probably >

I was freaking out until I read “Alabama lab” and I thought “you know what? That checks out.” >

Most appropriate state for this to happen in >

There's a joke to be made about cross-breeding in Alabama.