Sim et al. (2018) recently published a paper in Insect Molecular Biology describing CRISPR/Cas 9 methods for gene editing in three genera of Tephritid fruit flies: Anastrepha, Bactrocera, and Ceratitis. CRISPR/Cas9 allows for targeted gene editing through homology driven repair […]
CRISPR
Multiplexing gRNAs to Hedge Against Resistance to Gene Drive
Recently, Oberhofer et al (2018) published a paper examining the mechanisms of homing endonuclease gene drives in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They used a novel nuclease-encoding cassette containing four multiplexed gRNAs targeting genes required for viability […]
Driving into doublesex
Kyrou et al. (2018) in a recent paper in Nature Biotechnology report identifying a highly conserved target site in the Anopheles gambiae fertility gene doublesex (dsx), that cannot tolerate mutations. They built a gene drive targeting this site in dsx […]
Female Lethality System in Lepidoptera
Zhang et al (2018) in a recent paper in PNAS report their successful integration of transgenes into the W chromosome of Bombyx mori. Initially, they set out to place visible markers on the W. This would enable rapid and accurate […]
Improved HDR-Mediated Genome Editing
Jose Arturo Gutierrez-Triana and colleagues from Heidelberg University report in eLIFE a CRISPR/Cas9 based methodology that simultaneously decreases donor DNA multimerization and increases HDR single-copy integration. A common obstacle that CRISPR/Cas HDR mediated genome editing faces is the accurate and […]
Cas9 Gene Drive, Sex-Conversion and Evolved Resistance
In a recent manuscript, KaramiNejadRanjbar et al. demonstrate the development of a proof of principle Cas9-based suppression gene drive in D. melanogaster that can be applied to pest insects, and discuss the implications of resistance allele formation for practical use […]
Y-chromosome transgenics using CRISPR/Cas9
Buchman et al (2018) from Tata Institute of California University reported in Insect Molecular Biology the use of CRISPR/Cas9-HDR system in order to insert transgenes to specific sites of the Drosophila melanogaster Y chromosome. In addition they investigated its usage […]
Switchable Genome Editing
A recent manuscript by Suzuki et al (2018) demonstrates an effective method to control the expression of CRISPR Cas9 based molecular components with a small molecule. Existing methods for controlling Cas9 suffer from high background activity and/or use compounds […]
An Enhanced CRISPR Repressor
Nan Cher Yeo and colleagues in the Church lab report in Nature Methods the identification of a combination of repressor domains which increases gene repression and could be widely useful. The CRISPR-Cas system is widely used as a powerful gene […]
Mitigating Resistance to Gene Drive
A recent manuscript posted on bioRiv by Hammond et al (2018) report exciting improvements to CRISPR-based suppression gene drives in Anopheles gambiae, with the development of new CRISPR designs that reduce selection of resistance and results in much higher suppression […]