Abstract
The global demand for animal-based food products is anticipated to increase by 70% by 2050. Meeting this demand in a way that has minimal impact on the environment will require the implementation of advanced technologies. Genome editing of livestock is a tool that will allow breeders to improve animal welfare, performance and efficiency, paving the way to a more sustainable future for livestock agriculture. Currently, genome editing of livestock is limited to specialised laboratories due to the complexity of techniques available for the delivery of genome editing reagents into zygotes and reproductive cells. The emergence of three cutting-edge reproductive technologies – (i) zygote electroporation, (ii) zygote transduction of recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV), and (iii) surrogate sire technology – will provide livestock breeders with a new toolkit of delivery strategies for genome editing. The simplicity of these technologies will enable widespread on-farm application in major livestock species by seamlessly integrating into current breeding systems. We believe it is timely to highlight these three cutting-edge reproductive technologies for genome editing and have outlined pipelines for their implementation in on-farm settings. With a nuanced regulatory framework these technologies could fast-track livestock genetic gain and help secure a sustainable future for livestock.
Highlights
Preparing to feed a balanced and nutritious diet to the projected 9.7 billion people on the globe by 2050 will be one of the greatest challenges humanity has ever faced
We describe livestock genome editing strategies based on CRISPR-Cas, ZFNs and TALENs could achieve the same results
The edited mouse Spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) were transplanted into the testes of recipient males and lead to the generation of offspring harboring the edited donor genetics (Wang et al, 2017). These findings suggest the same will be achievable for mammalian livestock species, enabling the dissemination of genome-edited livestock genetics through surrogate sires
Summary
Preparing to feed a balanced and nutritious diet to the projected 9.7 billion people on the globe by 2050 will be one of the greatest challenges humanity has ever faced. On-Farm Livestock Genome Editing and introduce polymorphisms that are not present in the gene pool of elite brood stock, or even create novel changes predicted to result in improved gain (Laible et al, 2014) This powerful technology allows animal breeders to and efficiently alter an animal’s DNA. The emergence of three cutting-edge reproductive technologies—(i) zygote electroporation, (ii) zygote transduction with recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV), and (iii) surrogate sire technology (SST)—will provide animal breeders with a new toolkit for delivering CRISPR-Cas to reproductive cells. The simplicity of these approaches will allow livestock genome editing to occur on-farm. It is hoped these cutting-edge reproductive technologies will disperse the capacity to genome edit farm animals, fast-tracking genetic gains and helping to secure a sustainable future for livestock agriculture
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