Pig Genome Editing for Agriculture: Achievements and Challenges.

Area of Science:

• Agricultural Science
• Genetics
• Animal Breeding

Background:

• Traditional pig farming faces limitations in addressing complex genetic traits.
• Limited germplasm diversity hinders conventional breeding effectiveness.
• Polygenic traits and pleiotropic genes are difficult to improve using standard methods.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review achievements in pig agricultural genetics using genome editing.
• To identify challenges in applying genome editing for pig improvement.
• To highlight the potential of genome editing for solving persistent pig farming issues.

Main Methods:

• Review of scientific literature on genome editing applications in pig genetics.
• Analysis of progress in virus resistance, meat productivity, and quality enhancement.
• Examination of challenges including biomaterial requirements and cell culture.

Main Results:

• Genome editing accelerates the achievement of desired traits, previously pursued for centuries.
• Significant progress has been made in developing virus-resistant pigs.
• Genome editing can introduce beneficial mutations not found naturally, enhancing traits.

Conclusions:

• Genome editing is crucial for overcoming limitations in traditional pig breeding.
• It offers solutions for issues like lameness and damaging behaviors in pigs.
• Further research and application development are needed to address challenges in wider genome editing implementation.