'Extreme Sheep' May Brighten the Future of

Adelaide, Australia, June 8, 2006--The future of Australia's $3 billion-plus wool industry--and the carpet and rug makers who depend on it--may lie with the ugliest, least-wanted lambs. Sometimes called 'extreme' sheep, these fuzzy oddballs may have poorly crimped wool, bald patches or no wool at all. It turns out that such genetic anomalies may hold the best clues for manipulating sheep DNA to create better wool, according to scientists from SARDI (South Australian Research and Development Institute) and the University of Adelaide. Says Professor Phil Hynd of the University of Adelaide: "“These lambs, typically viewed as worthless, are in fact highly valuable to the industry, because one of the most efficient ways to identify the genes that impact on certain wool traits is to study animals that have rare or extreme features.” In a sense, it's easier to find a bad gene that clearly affects wool than it is to find a good one that is about the same as a zillion others. “It’s as though in a mirage of thousands of genes, we can suddenly see a flag pointing to those that are critical to wool follicle formation and fibre synthesis, ' Hynd explained. If the right genes can be identified and won over from the genetic Dark Side, merino wool might become far more durable and beautiful, perhaps rivaling the slickest synthetic fibers. An estimated 100 'extreme' lambs will be born this fall with naturally occurring random mutations. Sheep-raising Australians are being asked to turn the outcasts over for study to the Sheep Genomics Program, a joint venture of the Australian Wool Innovation Limited and Meat and Livestock Australia.