DMPQ: What is CRISPR-Cas9 and explain the process involved in using it. (Science)

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.   CRISPR stands for Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats it is in the series of molecular scissors which is used for deletion, insertion and replacement of genome to achieve the desired result. It is latest technology of gene editing.

Cas-9 is an enzyme. It use a synthetic guide RNA to introduce a double strand break at a specific location within a strand of DNA. It is a system used by bacterial cells to recognize and destroy viral DNA as a form of adaptive immunity.

Method of gene editing:

  1. Identification of the genetic strand for repairing
  2. Using the Cas9 the specified location is cut off from the strand.
  3. A DNA strand has a natural tendency for repairing. Scientist interfere during the auto-repair process, supplying the desired sequence of genetic codes that binds itself with the broken stand.

It is cheap, quick, easy, safer and more accurate to use because it relies on RNA–DNA base pairing, rather than the engineering of proteins that bind particular DNA sequences.

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