Recently, Professor Xiangyang Miao has been awarded a US patent from the the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) regarding a novel miRNA for increasing animal reproduction. The invention provides a novel and attractive method for producing animals with high fecundity, which lays the foundation for developing new animal varieties.

Reproduction trait is an important factor such as a number of litters per birth for livestock industry. It is reported that genetic selection contributes 30-60% of income to the animal industry, where there is 25% of such income supra related to the producing multiple births and 15% of such income supra related to individual breeding.

Therefore, animals with multiple births have been an important goal of common pursuit of world animal production. However, this trait is controlled by multiple genes and thus makes it hard for the animal industry to select such trait using traditional selection method. This invention provides a novel and creative pathway to improve the fertility of animals using a new miRNA or shRNA to inhibit the expression of inhibin in animals.

Since 2013, the research group has obtained 2 national invention patents and 1 US invention patent regarding increasing animal reproduction.