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Principles of CRISPR-Cas9 Gene Editing
CRISPR-Cas9 is a revolutionary gene-editing technology derived from a natural defense mechanism found in bacteria. It allows scientists to make precise, targeted changes to the DNA of living organisms. By "cutting" the DNA at a specific location, it enables the deletion, addition, or replacement of genetic sequences.
The system uses a guide RNA to locate the target sequence and the Cas9 enzyme to perform the cut. This technology has vast implications for medicine, including the potential to cure genetic disorders and engineer crops with enhanced traits. Its simplicity and efficiency have made it a standard tool in molecular biology.
In its natural form, CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) helps bacteria remember and destroy invading viruses. Scientists adapted this by creating a synthetic guide RNA (gRNA) that matches a specific 20-nucleotide sequence in the genome. When the Cas9 protein and the gRNA are introduced into a cell, they form…