{"id":1338481,"date":"2024-06-28T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-28T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.agriland.ie\/?p=1338481"},"modified":"2024-06-28T14:15:42","modified_gmt":"2024-06-28T13:15:42","slug":"research-underway-to-block-microbes-from-creating-methane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/farming-news\/research-underway-to-block-microbes-from-creating-methane\/","title":{"rendered":"Research underway to block microbes from creating methane"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A collaboration of research across University of Californa (UC) is underway to develop new tools to block microbes from creating methane in cattle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The research led by Jennifer Doudna and Jill Banfield is using clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR), which selectively modifies the DNA of living organisms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The $70 million research initiative backed by the\u00a0TED Audacious Project, is entitled ‘Engineering the\u00a0microbiome\u00a0with\u00a0CRISPR\u00a0to Improve our Climate and Health’.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It involves a close collaboration across three UC campuses \u2014 the Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI) at UC Berkeley, UC Davis, and UC San Francisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Methane research<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The project inspiration came from the results of feeding cows a specific type of red seaweed<\/a> to decrease the expression\u00a0of methane-producing genes in specific microbes in the cow\u2019s gut, resulting in a dramatic drop in methane emissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Providing enough seaweed for daily consumption by the global cow population is a large task and the researchers stated that it would most likely “not work” for grazing cattle that make up the majority of livestock around the globe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early intervention with CRISPR, however, could result in a permanently low-methane cow and provide a treatment accessible to nearly every calf, according to the researchers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor at the University of California Davis, Ermias Kebreab, who is a part of the team of academics said that the group’s first study working with red seaweed was done in dairy cattle within the Vivo area in South Africa, where a “substantial reduction” was seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IGI investigator, Matthias Hess said: “The ideal outcome of the project really would be that we could alter the microbiome in cattle really early in life, as a calf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Then that microbiome would remain stable and would produce very little if no methane at all”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Project leaders<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One of the project leaders, Doudna is best known for her work developing CRISPR\u00a0genome editing, for which she received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe precision tools we\u2019re developing will help us understand how microbiomes work at the fundamental level. And we can leverage that knowledge to address problems caused by microbes,” Doudna said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second project leader, Banfield, studied microbial communities for decades and first introduced Doudna to CRISPR systems in\u00a0bacteria, at a fortuitous meeting at a UC Berkeley caf\u00e9 in 2006.<\/p>\n\n\n