CRISPR poised to improve cattle production in the tropics by reducing disease and boosting climate resilience

One of the main problems in the tropics is heat stress, which disturbs animal homeostasis affecting the metabolic and hormonal status.

To face this challenge, the body has to make physiological adjustments that lead to an increase in heat loss and reduction of heat production (dos Santos et al. 2021).

All those adjustments have a price that is usually associated with low fertility and performance on milk and meat production.

There are perspectives to apply this technology in order to increase the animal performance under the challenges imposed by the tropical environments.

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The genome editing can be performed in the animal aiming to introduce or to increase the frequency of one or more favorable alleles in a given breed or it can be performed in the species surrounding it, as tropical pastures, parasites and microorganisms, aiming to feed the animal properly and to improve health and quality of life.

However, to GnEd accomplish its tasks, several studies need to be carried out in order to identify and increase our knowledge about potential targets, taking into consideration the biodiversity found in a tropical climate.

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