Spotlight

Alison Van Eenennaam

Alison Van Eenennaam examines how gene editing can enhance sustainability plus animal health and welfare

Gene Editing Can Complement Traditional Food-Animal Improvements
By Pat Bailey (UC Davis News)

Quick Summary
  • Gene editing builds on traditional breeding successes
  • The technology enhances sustainability plus animal health and welfare
  • Questions remain about regulatory issues

Gene editing — one of the newest and most promising tools of biotechnology — enables animal breeders to make beneficial genetic changes, without bringing along unwanted genetic changes.

Studying Mozambique tilapia, the researchers found that short DNA segments enhance expression of genes that regulate the fish's internal body chemistry in response to salinity stress. (Photo by Greg Hume/Creative Commons)

Research led by Dietmar Kueltz sheds light on how some fish adapt to saltwater

By Pat Baily, UC Davis News

Most fish live either in freshwater or saltwater, but others, including tilapia, have the remarkable ability to physiologically adjust to varying salinity levels — a trait that may be critically important as climate change begins to alter the salinity of ocean and coastal waters as well as the water in desert lakes and creeks.

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