Induced pluripotent stem cells from farm animals

The development of the induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) technology has revolutionized the world on the establishment of pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) across a great variety of animal species. Generation of iPSCs from domesticated animals would provide unrestricted cell resources for the study of embryonic development and cell differentiation of these species, for screening and establishing desired traits for sustainable agricultural production, and as veterinary and preclinical therapeutic tools for animal and human diseases. Induced PSCs from domesticated animals thus harbor enormous scientific, economical, and societal values. Although much progress has been made toward the generation of PSCs from these species, major obstacles remain precluding the exclamation of the establishment of bona fide iPSCs. The most prominent of them remain the inability of these cells to silence exogenous reprogramming factors, the obvious reliance on exogenous factors for their self-renewal, and the restricted development potential in vivo. In this review, we summarize the history and current progress in domestic farm animal iPSC generation, with a focus on swine, ruminants (cattle, ovine, and caprine), horses, and avian species (quails and chickens). We also discuss the problems associated with the farm animal iPSCs and potential future directions toward the complete reprogramming of somatic cells from farm animals.