[Livestock News reporter Kim Su-hyeong] The Rural Development Administration (Administrator Lee Seung-don) announced that it had developed a gene-edited pig lung immune cell line that can be used to identify the roles of genes involved in porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) infection.

Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome causes miscarriages and stillbirths in sows, as well as respiratory disease and deaths in piglets, resulting in substantial economic losses for pig farms. The virus primarily infects immune cells in the lungs of pigs. To identify the genes involved in infection, it is necessary to compare the degree of viral infection in cells with the function of a specific gene suppressed and in normal cells.

Previously, editing a gene required introducing both a protein that cuts genes, Cas nuclease (Cas9), and a guide molecule (gRNA) that directs it to the cutting site into the cell. In contrast, the cell line developed this time can produce Cas nuclease itself, so its distinguishing feature is that the target gene can be edited by introducing only gRNA.

After introducing gRNA into the cell line developed by the research team, they confirmed that part of the target gene had actually been cleaved. They also confirmed that the original cells’ key characteristics were maintained, indicating the potential to use the cell line in research analyzing the functions of genes involved in viral infection.

The Rural Development Administration plans to edit the genes of the cell line one by one and analyze changes in the degree of viral infection. Through this, it intends to identify genes that affect infection with porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome and use the findings in research to discover genes associated with disease resistance.

The results of this study were published in volume 27, issue 1 of the domestic academic journal ‘Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial Cooperation Society’.

Lee Kyung-tae, head of the Animal Bio-genomics Division at the National Institute of Animal Science of the Rural Development Administration, said, “This research is significant because it has established a cell line that can reduce the experimental steps needed to confirm gene functions. We will use it in future research on genes related to porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome infection.”

Livestock News, CHUKSANNEWS