Day: September 17, 2020

Scientists have created first gene-edited livestock that can serve as viable “surrogate sires,” males that produce sperm carrying only the genetic traits of donor animals, an advance that they say could improve food production for a growing global population.

The research, published in the journal PNAS, could speed the spread of desirable characteristics in livestock, and provide breeders in remote regions with better access to genetic material of ”elite animals” from other parts of the world.

The advance would also allow more precision breeding in animals such as goats where using artificial insemination is difficult, the researchers said.

“With this technology, we can get better dissemination of desirable traits and improve the efficiency of food production. This can have a major impact on addressing food insecurity around the world,” said Jon Oatley, a reproductive biologist at Washington State University in the US.

“If we can tackle this genetically, then that means less water, less feed and fewer antibiotics we have to put into the animals,” Oatley said.

The researchers used the gene-editing tool, CRISPR-Cas9, to knock out a gene specific to male fertility in the animal embryos that would be raised to become surrogate sires.

They produced mice, pigs,