Development of bovine pluripotent stem cell resources
Precision breeding via genome editing in cattle is a promising approach to rapidly deliver improved germplasms with the desired allele variants suitable for productivity, adaptation and resilience. Identifying and testing preferential alleles for important traits in tropical cattle is difficult and requires expensive animal challenges on indigenous breeds, while phenotyping hybrid cattle to determine GxE interactions is costly and requires long term measurements over many years. Development of enabling cell-based technology that can support and inform this process will shorten timelines and create bespoke biological tools that can be efficiently deployed in laboratory settings. Breed specific bovine pluripotent cells will be a permanent resource to study genome variations that underpin key traits, facilitating in vitro screening, cloning, editing, and biobanking. The project also addresses the 3Rs (Replacement, Reduction and Refinement) needs for responsible use of animals in scientific research. The creation of bovine pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) resources is also anticipated to offer opportunities in a longer term to develop in vitro phenotyping with the added benefit of accelerating precision breeding and fast delivery of tested germplasms.
This project will integrate with other CTLGH (and particularly ADGG) projects and bovine genome editing initiatives by providing tools for in vitro phenotyping of selected genotypes in a multitude of cell types. Efforts will begin at The Roslin Institute and be transferred to ILRI to establish the bovine embryonic stem cells for African indigenous cattle breeds. The proof-of-concept application of the embryonic stem cells technology at ILRI will focus on a few targeted locally adapted breeds. Selected local breeds from which the choice for the proof of concept (POC) will be made are indigenous to Kenya (Kenya Sahiwal, Improved and Orma Borans, indigenous zebus, Kamba and Turkana cattle), Ethiopia: Butana/Begait, Fogera, Sheko, Ethiopian Boran and Mursi cattle) Uganda (Ankole and Nganda cattle), and Tanzania (Tarime). We will also build on the resources generated from the GRRFAC (https://grrfac.ilri.org) project during the CTLGH phase 1 for additional justification fo r the choice of the breed for the POC. Additional efforts will focus on the development of complementary funding proposals in collaboration with AU-IBAR under their programme of characterization and conservation of African animal genetic resources. activities of the project include: The de novo establishment of bovine pluripotent stem cell lines, Differentiation potential of the bovine PSC/iPSC, Proof of concept (POC) gene editing potential of bovine PSC/iPSCs, and