Of course, farmers have used selective breeding to try to make animals big, muscular, docile, and easy to rear for generations. But gene-editing tools like CRISPR should allow them to fast-forward the process.
CRISPR offers a major advance over previous gene-editing tools. For a start, it’s relatively cheap, quick, and easy to use. Newer forms of CRISPR allow scientists to do more to a genome, too. Some forms allow us to change the base letters of DNA, such as swapping a C for a T. Others let us insert entirely new genes.
So perhaps it’s no surprise that scientists have started experimenting with CRISPR in farm animals. One popular target is a gene called myostatin, which codes for a protein that controls muscle growth. Interfering with this gene can lead to muscle overgrowth. In other words, you end up with big, muscly animals. And, eventually, more meat.
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Scientists have already experimented with using CRISPR to generate super-muscly cattle, pigs, sheep, rabbits, and goats. These studies have not had perfect results. Many of the animals didn’t survive infancy. And a lot of them had weirdly large tongues.
