Dairy Resources - Genetics

February 2023

April 2023

University of California, Davis, scientists are teaming up with UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco researchers on a $70-million donor-funded initiative that aims in part to cut climate change-causing emissions from cattle by using the genome-editing tool CRISPR on microbes in the cow’s gut.

Professor Ermias Kebreab, known for his innovative research using feed additives to reduce methane emissions, and Associate Professor Matthias Hess will collaborate with a world-renowned team at UC Berkeley: Professors Jennifer Doudna and Jill Banfield. Doudna won the 2020 Nobel Prize in chemistry for her work to develop CRISPR genome-editing technology. Earlier this year, Banfield became the first woman to win the van Leeuwenhoek Medal for her impact on the field of microbiology.

The groundbreaking health and climate initiative will be funded by TED’s Audacious Project, which provides donor support to encourage the world’s greatest changemakers to dream bigger. Announced recently at the TED conference in Vancouver, “Engineering the Microbiome with CRISPR to Improve our Climate and Health” is the largest scientific award funded through the project to date.

“This cutting-edge initiative will harness the University of California’s research prowess to solve real-world problems in areas that affect us all: sustainability and health,” said University of California President Michael V. Drake. “I’m very pleased to see multiple UC entities working collaboratively to develop and deploy new technology for the public good. I’m grateful to our philanthropic partners for supporting impactful research that will change the world for the better.”

July 2021

Moving to 100% polled genetics is an air-tight method of dispelling consumer concerns about dehorning pain. But the wheels of genetic progress turn relatively slowly in cattle, and polled animals traditionally have lower net merit, making producers less inclined to adopt them. That picture may be changing with new technology.

Transitioning the entire population of the U.S. dairy herd to polled genetics is a lofty yet admirable goal to improve animal welfare.

June 2019

Credit: Cole Burston Getty Images

Just two Y chromosomes exist in a huge population of U.S. Holsteins; researchers want to know what traits have been lost

April 2019

Genome editing (also known as gene editing, genome engineering, genetic engineering) refers to a set of tools and techniques that allows researchers to manipulate the underlying genetic code of an organism. These changes can include adding, removing or making specific modifications to targeted regions in the genome. Although a number of methods exist for genome editing, the potential promise and quick rise to popularity of the CRISPR-Cas9 approach, which stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats and CRISPR associated protein 9, has placed it front and center in the public eye.

CRISPR-Cas9 was originally discovered in bacteria where it protects against viruses in a similar way to how our immune system operates. By storing short pieces of DNA from the viruses, the bacteria are able to recognize viruses that have infected them before and produce short RNA sequences that match the viruses' DNA. These short RNA sequences bind to Cas9, or other CRISPR associated proteins, which are able to cut both strands of the targeted DNA. If the virus is unable to correctly repair these cuts, it usually dies. Much like in the bacteria, researchers are able to create short RNA sequences that bind to Cas9 and guide it to specific locations of interest within an organism's genetic code. Once a cut is made, researchers rely on the cell's own DNA repair mechanisms to make the desired manipulations (add, remove or modify).

By Blythe Schultz and Jason W. Ross
Iowa State University Department of Animal Science Iowa Pork Industry Center
National Hog Farmer

March 2019

Genome editing promises to change the ag landscape in the 21st century.

December 2018

Products resulting from the new technology are expected to reach grocery store shelves next year ( iStock.com )

Cows born without horns or pigs that never reach puberty? These scenarios could become a reality soon, thanks to new gene-editing tools.

February 27, 2018

Genomic testing might seem expensive, but it has some benefits that can be seen in the long-run for a dairy. ( Mike Opperman )

November 2017

Genomic evaluation has been successfully implemented in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, France, the Netherlands, Germany, and the Scandinavian countries. Adoption of this technology in the major dairy producing countries has led to significant changes in the worldwide dairy industry. Gradual elimination of the progeny test system has led to a reduction in the number of sires with daughter records and fewer genetic ties between years. As genotyping costs decrease, the number of cows genotyped will continue to increase, and these records will become the basic data used to compute genomic evaluations, most likely via application of “single-step” methodologies.