By: Aashish Verma
Student, Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti Language University, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India
CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) technology has revolutionized genetic engineering, ushering in a new era of advancements in biotechnology. Derived from the adaptive immune system of bacteria, the CRISPR-Cas9 system offers unparalleled precision and efficiency in genome editing. Its applications in animal biotechnology are extensive, encompassing livestock improvement, disease resistance, and biopharmaceutical production, as well as environmental conservation. In livestock, CRISPR has enabled the enhancement of desirable traits, such as higher productivity, improved nutritional quality, and resistance to devastating diseases like porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS). Furthermore, it has been instrumental in developing animal models for studying human diseases, significantly advancing drug discovery and therapeutic research. CRISPR has also shown remarkable potential in conservation biology, where it is being utilized to protect endangered species by bolstering their genetic resilience against environmental and pathogenic threats. In the biopharmaceutical sector, genetically modified animals are being used as biofactories to produce vital therapeutic proteins and vaccines, offering scalable and cost-effective solutions to medical challenges. Despite its immense promise, the use of CRISPR is not without challenges. Ethical concerns surrounding genetic modification, potential off-target effects, and regulatory hurdles pose significant barriers to its widespread adoption. Advances in CRISPR variants, such as base and prime editing, offer solutions to enhance specificity and minimize risks, making its application more robust and reliable. This article examines the groundbreaking role of CRISPR in animal biotechnology, highlighting its applications, advantages, and challenges. By addressing existing challenges, CRISPR can unlock new frontiers in agriculture, medicine, and conservation, heralding a new era of precision-driven innovation.
Keywords: CRISPR, genetic engineering, livestock, endangered species, animals
Citation:
Refrences:
1. Jinek M, Chylinski K, Fonfara I, Hauer M, Doudna JA, Charpentier E. A programmable dual-RNA–guided DNA endonuclease in adaptive bacterial immunity. science. 2012 Aug 17;337(6096):816-21.
2. Doudna JA, Charpentier E. The new frontier of genome engineering with CRISPR-Cas9. Science. 2014 Nov 28;346(6213):1258096.
3. Whitworth KM, Rowland RR, Ewen CL, Trible BR, Kerrigan MA, Cino-Ozuna AG, Samuel MS, Lightner JE, McLaren DG, Mileham AJ, Wells KD. Gene-edited pigs are protected from porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus. Nature biotechnology. 2016 Jan;34(1):20-2.
4. Kalds P, Zhou S, Cai B, Liu J, Wang Y, Petersen B, Sonstegard T, Wang X, Chen Y. Sheep and goat genome engineering: from random transgenesis to the CRISPR era. Frontiers in Genetics. 2019 Sep 3;10:750.
5. Perisse IV, Fan Z, Singina GN, White KL, Polejaeva IA. Improvements in gene editing technology boost its applications in livestock. Frontiers in genetics. 2021 Jan 8;11:614688.
6. Trapani I, Banfi S, Simonelli F, Surace EM, Auricchio A. Gene therapy of inherited retinal degenerations: prospects and challenges. Human gene therapy. 2015 Apr 1;26(4):193-200.
7. Oishi I, Yoshii K, Miyahara D, Kagami H, Tagami T. Targeted mutagenesis in chicken using CRISPR/Cas9 system. Scientific reports. 2016 Apr 6;6(1):23980.
8. Platt RJ, Chen S, Zhou Y, Yim MJ, Swiech L, Kempton HR, Dahlman JE, Parnas O, Eisenhaure TM, Jovanovic M, Graham DB. CRISPR-Cas9 knockin mice for genome editing and cancer modeling. Cell. 2014 Oct 9;159(2):440-55.
9. Fu Y, Foden JA, Khayter C, Maeder ML, Reyon D, Joung JK, Sander JD. High-frequency off-target mutagenesis induced by CRISPR-Cas nucleases in human cells. Nature biotechnology. 2013 Sep;31(9):822-6.
10. Ramakrishna S, Cho SW, Kim S, Song M, Gopalappa R, Kim JS, Kim H. Surrogate reporter-based enrichment of cells containing RNA-guided Cas9 nuclease-induced mutations. Nature communications. 2014 Feb 26;5(1):3378.
11. Anzalone AV, Randolph PB, Davis JR, Sousa AA, Koblan LW, Levy JM, Chen PJ, Wilson C, Newby GA, Raguram A, Liu DR. Search-and-replace genome editing without double-strand breaks or donor DNA. Nature. 2019 Dec;576(7785):149-57.
12. Balmas E, Sozza F, Bottini S, Ratto ML, Savorè G, Becca S, Snijders KE, Bertero A. Manipulating and studying gene function in human pluripotent stem cell models. FEBS letters. 2023 Sep;597(18):2250-87.
13. Yi DI, Zhou SW, Qiang DI, Bei CA, Zhao XE, Zhong S, Jin MH, Wang XL, CHEN YL. The CRISPR/Cas9 induces large genomic fragment deletions of MSTN and phenotypic changes in sheep. Journal of Integrative Agriculture. 2020 Apr 1;19(4):1065-73.
14. Li C, Zhou S, Li Y, Li G, Ding Y, Li L, Liu J, Qu L, Sonstegard T, Huang X, Jiang Y. Trio-based deep sequencing reveals a low incidence of off-target mutations in the offspring of genetically edited goats. Frontiers in genetics. 2018 Oct 4;9:449.
15. Islam MA, Rony SA, Rahman MB, Cinar MU, Villena J, Uddin MJ, Kitazawa H. Improvement of disease resistance in livestock: application of immunogenomics and CRISPR/Cas9 technology. Animals. 2020 Nov 28;10(12):2236.
16. Dragomir MP, Knutsen E, Calin GA. Classical and noncanonical functions of miRNAs in cancers. Trends in Genetics. 2022 Apr 1;38(4):379-94.
17. Banda A, Impomeni O, Singh A, Baloch AR, Hu W, Jaijyan DK. Precision in Action: The Role of Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats/Cas in Gene Therapies. Vaccines. 2024 Jun 7;12(6):636.
18. Zeng Z, Xia L, Fan S, Zheng J, Qin J, Fan X, Liu Y, Tao J, Liu Y, Li K, Ling Z. Circular RNA CircMAP3K5 acts as a MicroRNA-22-3p sponge to promote resolution of intimal hyperplasia via TET2-mediated smooth muscle cell differentiation. Circulation. 2021 Jan 26;143(4):354-71.
