(Credit: Shutterstock) Chinese scientists say they've found a way to take some of the sizzle out of our bacon. Though that sounds worrying, it was actually done with the pigs' health in mind. Pigs are so notoriously porky in part because they lack a gene, UCP1, that helps burn fat to generate heat. The result is plumper pigs, but it also poses an increased risk for newborns that can die if they're not kept warm enough.
With the gene-editing technology CRISPR, researchers from the Institute of Zoology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing put the UCP1 gene into pig embryos and implanted them into females. They were born with 24 percent less body fat, the researchers say, and fared better compared to normal pigs when faced with chilly conditions. They published their work Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The pigs also had a ...
