{"id":3078,"date":"2017-02-22T12:28:34","date_gmt":"2017-02-22T12:28:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/?p=3078"},"modified":"2017-02-22T12:28:34","modified_gmt":"2017-02-22T12:28:34","slug":"researchers-develop-surrogate-hens-save-rare-breeds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/2017\/02\/22\/researchers-develop-surrogate-hens-save-rare-breeds\/","title":{"rendered":"Researchers develop surrogate hens to save rare breeds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Researchers have developed hens that do not produce their own chicks and can be used as surrogates to lay eggs from rare breeds.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><br \/>\nUsing gene-editing techniques, this could help to boost breeding of endangered birds, as well as improving production of commercial hens, researchers wrote in the study published in the journal Development.<\/p>\n<p>A team led by the University of Edinburgh&#8217;s Roslin Institute used a genetic tool called TALEN to delete a section of chicken DNA. They targeted part of a gene called DDX4, which is crucial for bird fertility.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;These chickens are a first step in saving and protecting rare poultry breeds from loss in order to preserve future biodiversity of our poultry from both economic and climate stresses,&#8221; said lead researcher Mike McGrew from the University of Edinburgh&#8217;s Roslin Institute.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers noted that donor primordial germ cells from other breeds could be implanted into the gene-edited chickens as they are developing inside an egg.<\/p>\n<p>The surrogate hens would then grow up to produce eggs containing all of the genetic information from the donor breeds.<\/p>\n<p>The surrogate chickens are the first gene-edited birds to be produced in Europe.\u2014IANS<\/p>\n<p>Image:\u00a0The Roslin Institute<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Researchers have developed hens that do not produce their own chicks and can be used as surrogates to lay eggs from rare breeds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":3079,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[97],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3078"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3078"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3080,"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3078\/revisions\/3080"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}