Long-term, Multidomain Analyses to Identify the Breed and Allelic Effects in MSTN -Edited Pigs to Overcome Lameness and Sustainably Improve Nutritional Meat Production

Beef and mutton production has been aided by breeding to integrate allelic diversity for myostatin ( MSTN ), but a lack of diversity in the MSTN germplasm has limited similar advances in pig farming. Moreover, insurmountable challenges with congenital lameness and a dearth of data about the impacts of feed conversion, reproduction, and meat quality in MSTN -edited pigs have also currently blocked progress. Here, in a largest-to-date evaluation of multiple MSTN -edited pig populations, we demonstrated a practical alternative edit-site-based solution that overcomes the major production obstacle of hindlimb weakness. We also provide long-term and multidomain datasets for multiple breeds that illustrate how MSTN -editing can sustainably increase the yields of breed-specific lean meat and the levels of desirable lipids without deleteriously affecting feed-conversion rates or litter size. Apart from establishing a new benchmark for the data scale and quality of genome-edited animal production, our study specifically illustrates how gene-editing site selection profoundly impacts the phenotypic outcomes in diverse genetic backgrounds.