Development of genome engineering technologies in cattle: from random to specific

Soo-Young Yum, Ki-Young Youn, Woo-Jae Choi, Goo Jang

The production of transgenic farm animals (e.g., cattle) via genome engineering for the gain or loss of gene functions is an important undertaking. In the initial stages of genome engineering, DNA micro-injection into one-cell stage embryos (zygotes) followed by embryo transfer into a recipient was performed because of the ease of the procedure. However, as this approach resulted in severe mosaicism and has a low efficiency, it is not typically employed in the cattle as priority, unlike in mice. To overcome the above issue with micro-injection in cattle, somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) was introduced and successfully used to produce cloned livestock. The application of SCNT for the production of transgenic livestock represents a significant advancement, but its development speed is relatively slow because of abnormal reprogramming and low gene targeting efficiency. Recent genome editing technologies (e.g., ZFN, TALEN, and CRISPR-Cas9) have been rapidly adapted for applications in cattle and great results have been achieved in several fields such as disease models and bioreactors. In the future, genome engineering technologies will accelerate our understanding of genetic traits in bovine and will be readily adapted for bio-medical applications in cattle.