The white coat colour of Yorkshire and Landrace pig breeds is caused by the dominant white I allele of KIT, associated with 450-kb duplications and a splice mutation (G > A) at the first base in intron 17. To test whether genome editing can be employed to correct this structural mutation, and to investigate the role of KIT in the control of porcine coat colour, we designed sgRNAs targeting either intron 16 or intron 17 of KIT, and transfected Cas9/sgRNA co-expression plasmids into the kidney cells of Yorkshire pigs. |
