A somewhat curious way of helping fauna and flora to adapt to a problem that is aggravating human beings is to modify your DNA to make them more resistant to global warming. That is precisely what researchers at the University of Florida are doing with cows.
These animals are very useful for humanity, so it turns out to be very important to make sure that they will continue to exist.
In the same way that in the same genus, whether animal or vegetable, there can be a great variety of species, in the case of cows the same thing happens. For this reason, a team of researchers, including Professor Raluca Mateescu from the Department of Animal Sciences of the UF / IFAS of the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, are investigating the brangus cow, which is the most tolerant of heat. This is a cross between the Angus and Brahman varieties.
To do so, they have received a three-year federal grant for $ 733. With it, they will be able to trace the DNA segments of the two varieties, which will help them to know which regions of DNA are important for regulating the animal's body temperature, according to Mateescu said.
About 40% of the world's beef cows are found in the United States. In order to obtain animals that are better adapted to warm living conditions and also have better quality meat, the researchers they want to investigate in the long term using genomic tools how to make them have a greater tolerance to heat stress.
This is undoubtedly research that, in the words of Mateescu, "offers a powerful new approach to meet the challenges of climate change and develop smart productive livestock." But what about you, what do you think of the genetic manipulation of animals?
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