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Fig. 2 | CABI Agriculture and Bioscience

Fig. 2

From: Genome-editing opportunities to enhance cattle productivity in the tropics

Fig. 2

Source of the pictures: Embrapa

Opportunities for gene editing in tropical forage grasses. Guinea grass, elephant grass and different species of Brachiaria are the main tropical forage grasses used as pastures in Brazil. Although still incipient, some genes and quantitative trait loci from these grasses have been identified to be associated with drought tolerance, biomass digestibility, and spittlebug resistance. Gene editing can target these genes and help breeding traits that are not easily improved by conventional breeding. Increased biodigestibility may result in greater animal productivity. Greater drought tolerance may increase forage productivity and quality during the dry season (from May to September in Central Brazil). Blue circles indicate the average rainfall for each month in Central Brazil, varying from near 15 to around 250 mm (Pereira et al. 2019). During the rainy season, the attack of spittlebugs impacts forage productivity and quality (green circles represent the level of spittlebug attack over the year). By the end of the rainy season, these insects lay diapausing eggs that survive during the dry season (Saraiva et al. 2022). When focusing on the integrated crop-livestock-forestry systems, better shade tolerance is needed, although the molecular basis for this trait has not been searched in the main tropical forge grasses cultivated in Brazil.

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