What Is CRISPR?
CRISPR which is short for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats is the name designated to a family of DNA sequences that are found in genomes of some prokaryotic organisms like archaea and bacteria.
Simply put, they are specialized stretches of DNA, which when combined with a protein called Cas9 are capable of cutting strands of DNA. Hence it is popularly known as CRISPR Cas9.
The CRISPR technology was later adopted by researchers to effortlessly alter DNA sequences and successfully modify gene functions. It has proven to be extremely simple as well as the most effective tool for editing genomes.
This technology has been widely acknowledged by researchers as it could potentially correct genetic defects, treating as well as preventing the spread of many diseases, and could also significantly improve the quality of crops.
As good and effective it may be, the application of the CRISPR technology does raise some moral and ethical questions.
Application Of CRISPR In the Poultry Industry:
With social media, people all over the world are now more willing to include morally ethical food sources in their diet. According to mrchickencoop.com, there is a shifting perspective in how they see food not just for what it is but also where it comes from and how it is derived.
One such industry that has observed such a phenomenon is the poultry industry. An increasing number of people are now showing interest in consuming „ethical eggs“.
As we all know there are two most popular types of chicken in the business:
- Broilers, and
- Layers
The broilers are consumed for their meat, and the Layers are raised in a way so that they can lay as many eggs as possible.
While the broilers are perfect for meat consumption, the layers simply don’t have enough meat on their body that is adequate for human consumption.
Moreover, only the hens are capable of laying eggs, the male chicks are rendered completely useless as a result of which, billions of hatched male chicks are killed off each year.
To tackle this problem, a famous agriculture-tech startup named eggXYt from Israel has found a humanitarian solution to this ethical dilemma with the use of CRISPR.
eggXYt’s co-founder and CEO Yehuda Elram claims that the poultry industry is facing a major financial and ethical dilemma as about a billion male chicks are born only to be disposed of.
Despite the tremendous efforts and financial investments involved in incubation, hatching, and the manual mating process of these birds.
Aside from that, the financial investment that is involved in the transportation, incubation, and the manual labor involved in assorting the chickens is way too much.
Around 8 billion chickens are hatched each year, the incubation period takes around three weeks. The process of assortment needs to be done considering the gender of the birds which requires trained labor.
All these factors result in a financial loss of about $ 1 billion according to eggXYt.
So How Can CRISPR Help?
The scientists at eggXYt claim that they can edit the genes of the chickens in a way that they become capable of laying sex-detectable eggs.
Now, how is that even possible?
This process is made possible by the use of biomarkers. According to Elram, by inserting a biomarker on the male sex chromosome, it is entirely possible to make the bird sex-detectable.
The biomarker, when placed on the eggs, is automatically detected by the scanner.
As the biomarkers are placed only on the male chromosomes, the eggs carrying the male chick in them gets sorted out mechanically as the biomarker is detected by the scanner that it is passed through.
This way, the male chicks are easily segregated from the female chicks, as female chromosomes are not marked.
When those eggs hatch and later become layers, they are biologically indistinguishable from the natural hens.
The scanners used to identify the male eggs are called electro-optical scanners. While the unaltered female passes right through them, the male eggs shine a bright yellow color which is easily detected by the sensors of the scanner.
This allows the system to keep the male eggs from entering the hatcheries in the first place hence acting as a „gatekeeper“.
This allows the eggs to be sold off to various cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries, the eggs can also be sold for consumption.
This is a major win for the poultry industry as it saves costs and also solves the ethical dilemma of exterminating half of its product, while also introducing billions of eggs into the global market and helping meet their ever-increasing demand.
Now that we have discussed all the advantages and ways the CRISPR technology can benefit the poultry industry, let’s also discuss the challenges involved in using it.
Challenges Involved With Using the CRISPR Technology:
Not Consistently Efficient:
Editing efficiency is basically the percentage of cells that are successfully edited in your culture vessel.
There can be two potentially fatal outcomes because of this:
1. Your cells start behaving abnormally in the presence of toxic selection with antibiotics
2. When working with CRISPR there are chances that you may end up limiting the number of cells that you have to work with, this happens when your cell refuses to divide or expand in the culture that it is placed in.
Setting Up From Scratch Is a Considerable Time Investment:
CRISPR requires a well-established genome-editing pipeline which is rare to find. If your project requires genome editing via CRISPR-Cas9, chances are that you will be asked to create and optimize a protocol.
Optimizing a CRISPR-Cas9 protocol can prove to be very challenging and time-consuming.
Simply put, if you are an up-and-coming poultry farm, you are better off taking the financial loss than spending the money to set up a genome-editing pipeline.
Off-target Modifications:
Off-target Modification is a phenomenon where your CRISPR-Cas9 system creates mutations in the genome where you did not intend for it to go.
Off-target modifications are completely unpredictable and can influence other genes of the genome, it can even affect other regions of the genome.
This can be reduced considerably with the help of a modified version of Cas9 called, Cas-9 nickase. However, the chances of avoiding an off-target modification are never a 100% and the chances of consequences can prove to be potentially catastrophic.