India’s first gene-edited sheep just turned one. How’s it doing?

BBC:

India’s first gene-edited sheep recently turned a year old and researchers who developed it say it’s doing well.

Born on 16 December last year in Indian-administered Kashmir, the sheep has been named Tarmeem – the Arabic word for modification or editing.

Tarmeem is housed in a private enclosure at the Sher-e-Kashmir Agricultural University in the region’s main city Srinagar along with its non-edited twin sister.

Researchers at the university told the BBC that they used CRISPR technology – a biological system for altering DNA – to develop it.

Basically what it allows scientists to do is use it like a pair of scissors to chop off bits of a gene that cause weaknesses or diseases.

“We extracted a number of embryos from pregnant sheep and edited a specific gene – known as the myostatin gene – which negatively affects muscle growth,” researcher Dr Suhail Magray told the BBC.

The embryos or fertilised eggs were kept in controlled laboratory conditions for two-three days after which they were transferred to a female sheep – or the foster recipient.

“And then nature took over – 150 days later, lambs were born,” he said. “Our aim was to increase the muscle mass in sheep and by knocking out the myostatin gene, we successfully managed to do that,” he added.

After Tarmeem turned one earlier this month, Prof Riaz Shah, the dean of faculty of veterinary sciences and principal investigator on the project, gave the BBC a status update.

“It’s growing well, showing normal physiological, biochemical and physical parameters,” he said. “Tarmeem’s muscle growth has expectedly shown significant increase – about 10% – in comparison to its non-edited twin. I think it is likely to increase further with age.”

Experimentation is going on to evaluate its health and survival and the sheep is kept in a secure environment under strict surveillance, Prof Shah said, adding that they have submitted a research project to the government for funding support.