Lab animals: Gene-editing technology is used to create female-only and male-only mice litters

Single-sex litters of mice — comprising only either female or male pups — have been produced by means of so-called CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technology. The technique, developed by experts at the Francis Crick Institute and the University of Kent, works by inactivating embryos of one sex shortly after fertilisation. It could be used to improve animal welfare in both laboratory and agricultural settings where, for various reasons, only female or male animals are needed. It is common for animals of the unrequired sex to be culled — a practice which could be drastically reduced by controlling the sex of the animals prior to birth. As the technique requires the genetic modification of both parents to work, however, the approach would not be suitable for forcing the sex of designer babies. Single-sex litters of mice — comprising only either female or male pups — have been produced by means of so-called CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technology. Pictured: the mice that were bred to create single-sex litters. The black parts of their coat are caused by the genetically modified cells, while the white parts come from the non-modified parts of their genome

More related to this: