The Application of CRISPR/Cas9 Technology for Farm Animals: A Review

Abstract

Livestock animal are important for agriculture economy and biomedical research. They are sources of Milk, meat, carcass, organic manure and other products. The development of genome editing technologies, especially CRISPR-Cas have revolutionized the generation of gene edited farm animals. In this review, we briefly introduce the CRISPR-Cas9 technology and highlight its application on livestock such as human disease modeling, disease resistant animal, and generation of hornless cattle, animal welfare and other agricultural and biomedical related traits which enhance the livestock production in order to meet the increasing demand of food worldwide. The ability to transfer sperm-producing stem cells or spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) from a donor animal into the testes of a recipient male could have multiple applications. Production of BLG free milk in cattle provides a promising way to those who have allergy to cow milk. The knockdown of myostatin gene in different species like Sheep, Goat, Cattle and pig is very helpful in the economy of meat industry. Besides the several benefits of CRISPR-Cas9 technology, the risk factors and ethics issues related to this technology should be reconsidered before they enter into CRISPR era.

Utilization of Genome Editing for Livestock Resilience in Changing Environment

“…Scientists can then insert, delete, or replace the cut DNA sequence with a desired sequence (Mehra and Kumar, 2022;Rasheed et al, 2022;Khiabani et al, 2023;Li et al, 2023), (b) Zinc Finger Nucleases (ZFNs): Zinc Finger Nucleases are engineered proteins that can bind to specific DNA sequences and cut the DNA at that location. Like CRISPR-Cas9, ZFNs can be used to add, delete or modify genes (Mehra and Kumar, 2022;Wani et al, 2023a), (c) TALENs: Transcription Activator-Like Effector Nucleases (TALENs) are another type of engineered proteins that can bind to specific DNA sequences and cut the DNA at that location, and TALENs work by using a DNA-binding domain that can be programmed to recognize a specific DNA sequence (Mehra and Kumar, 2022;Kumar and Kues, 2023;Wani et al, 2023a), (d) Homologous Recombination: Homologous Recombination is a technique that uses a DNA template to repair a broken DNA strand. This technique is often used to introduce specific mutations or changes to a DNA sequence (Ranjitha et al, 2022;Park, 2023).…”

CRISPR futures: Rethinking the politics of genome editing

“…Genome editing can facilitate the expansion of capital accumulation into new geographical areas, but it can also facilitate the intensification of production in loco. Take, for instance, pigs, chickens and cows that have been engineered to resist viral diseases (Pal and Chakravarty, 2019: 271-296;Mehra and Kumar, 2022). These genetic interventions are often presented as an expression of a rather surprising ethical turn taken by giant multinational conglomerates that profit from industrial breeding in concentrated animal feeding operations.…”

“…Off-target effects, unexpected mutations, genetic drifts and ecological unexpected consequences are constantly reported (Zhang et al, 2015; Warwick et al, 2009; Schaefer et al, 2017; Giovannetti et al, 2005; Tabashnik et al, 2013; Gatehouse et al, 2011). Additionally, security agencies constantly warn the public of the constant possibility that new genomic biotechnologies may enable new forms of bioaccidents as well as acts of bioterrorism and genetic warfare (Darpa, 2016; Mullin, 2016). Despite these persisting concerns coming from within established centres of scientific knowledge and state power, powerful structural tendencies are pushing the search for ever-more effective means of ‘genetic command and control’.…”