Advances in genome editing technology and its applications in poultry breeding

Abstract

Poultry has always had a unique range of applications in a variety of fields. Despite being an extremely valuable model organism for research, its usage lagged as their development almost takes place within an egg, and incubated outside which makes it strenuous to approach and handle the zygote. The techniques of precise editing of specific loci in the genome using the programmable genome editing tools have nullified this lag of poultry species to be used as a research model. The genome-editing technique thus generates highly valuable and quality-improved poultry, purely based on primordial germ-cells, which are the progenitor cells of gametes, differentiating poultry species from that of the mammalian system. In this review, PGC-mediated genome editing in birds and their applications in the poultry field has been briefed.