All six calves inherited the gene for preventing horn growth, but four also got a piece of the plasmid used to introduce the sequence to their dad—complicating regulatory approval.
Since The Scientist published its first issue in October 1986, life-science research has transformed from a manual and often tedious task to a high-tech, largely automated process of unprecedented efficiency.
Researchers use a gene editor to introduce an allele that eliminates the horned trait—and thus, the need for an expensive and painful process of dehorning—in dairy cows.