Genetic modification breeding technology for pigs can overcome traditional breeding barriers and quickly obtain commercial pigs of superior breeds. Somatic cell heavy ion mutagenesis breeding is an effective method to obtain new breeds bypassing genetic editing technology, providing a new breakthrough for the breeding of new pig breeds.
On April 19th, the research team led by Academician Yin Yulong of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and chief researcher of the Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences, including graduate students Liu Fusui and Liu Xiaolin, researcher Zhao Bingran's team from the Hunan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and graduate students Xie Tao and Gao Peiyu from the Institute of Agricultural Genomics, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, conducted the second batch of heavy ion mutagenesis irradiation experiments on pig somatic cells. Personnel from the Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, also participated in the experiment.
In the first batch of Ningxiang pig somatic cell heavy ion mutagenesis experiments, the above-mentioned team summarized the survival status of mutated cells cultured at different irradiation doses and calculated and analyzed the mutation probability, mutation sites, and occurrence of frame-shift mutations with irradiation doses. Based on this, the mutagenesis experiment further optimized the heavy ion irradiation dose, the nutritional needs of cultured cells after mutagenesis, and mutation cell screening techniques.
After nearly 20 days of effort, the second batch of somatic cell mutagenesis experiments was successfully completed at the Shallow Layer Heavy Ion Beam Biological Radiation Terminal of the Lanzhou Heavy Ion Accelerator National Laboratory. It is reported that the team will next conduct resequencing and bioinformatics analysis of the main effective genes for excellent traits, isolate monoclonal cells with beneficial mutations, and then use somatic cell cloning technology to breed high-quality pigs, thereby providing new breeding materials for the cultivation of high-quality pig breeds.
Teamwork in action. Image provided by the interviewee.
