What is genome editing and CRISPR/Cas9？

Genome editing and CRISPR/Cas9

Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR):

Several approaches to genome editing have been developed. A recent one is known as CRISPR-Cas9, which is short for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats and CRISPR-associated protein 9. The CRISPR-Cas9 system has generated a lot of excitement in the scientific community because it is faster, cheaper, more accurate, and more efficient than other existing genome editing methods.

CRISPR-Cas9 was adapted from a naturally occurring genome editing system in bacteria. The bacteria capture snippets of DNA from invading viruses and use them to create DNA segments known as CRISPR arrays. The CRISPR arrays allow the bacteria to "remember" the viruses (or closely related ones). If the viruses attack again, the bacteria produce RNA segments from the CRISPR arrays to target the viruses' DNA. The bacteria then use Cas9 or a similar enzyme to cut the DNA apart, which disables the virus.

The CRISPR-Cas9 system works similarly in the lab. Researchers create a small piece of RNA with a short "guide" sequence that attaches (binds) to a specific target sequence of DNA in a genome. The RNA also binds to the Cas9 enzyme. As in bacteria, the modified RNA is used to recognize the DNA sequence, and the Cas9 enzyme cuts the DNA at the targeted location. Although Cas9 is the enzyme that is used most often, other enzymes (for example Cpf1) can also be used. Once the DNA is cut, researchers use the cell's own DNA repair machinery to add or delete pieces of genetic material, or to make changes to the DNA by replacing an existing segment with a customized DNA sequence.

References :

• Lander, E. S. (2016). The Heroes of CRISPR. Cell, 164(1-2), 18-28. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2015.12.041
• Varshney, G. K., Pei, W. H., LaFave, M. C., Idol, J., Xu, L. S., Gallardo, V., . . . Burgess, S. M. (2015). High-throughput gene targeting and phenotyping in zebrafish using CRISPR/Cas9. Genome Research, 25(7), 1030-1042. doi:10.1101/gr.186379.114