This publication describes tomatoes and physalis plants from the Solanaceae family that have been modified by CRISPR/Cas so that they are much smaller in size and flower earlier than other tomatoes. 3 genes were knocked out in the tomato using CRISPR/Cas, which are necessary for the time of flowering, the length of the stem and […]
Scientists detected structural irregularities, unwanted changes and T-DNA (transfer DNA from plasmids) integration by using whole genome sequencing methods after transformation of the plant using an Agrobacterium tumefaciens plasmid. They used a novel sequencing method called Nanopore long-read DNA sequencing technology, that enables the sequencing of long stretches of DNA. Apparently, the integration of T-DNA […]
This study systematically shows, in various human cell lines, that cytosine base editors (CBEs), which are supposed to enzimatically convert cytosines to thymines in specific target sites of the genome, also cause many unintended changes at the level of the RNA. Base editors are based on a dead Cas9 enzyme that can still recognize the […]
Proteins are composed of 20 amino acids. Those amino acids are determined by a total of 64 codons. Three base pairs of the DNA, also named a codon, are encoding one amino acid. Eighteen amino acids contain more than one codon, which can have an impact on gene-expression. In this study, an Escherichia coli strain […]
The paper examines risks posed by plants produced using new genetic modification techniques (nGMs). For this purpose, a literature survey was conducted from January 2011 to June 2017 and important aspects for a suitable risk assessment were discussed using market-orientated applications in plants. The authors conclude that even small changes in the genome and the […]
Prime editing, a new variant of the CRISPR/Cas toolbox, enables the introduction of deletions, insertions and all 12 options to convert one base enzymatically into another at target sequence(s) in the genome of target organisms. In prime editing, a single strand of the DNA is cut to reduce the occurrence of off-target effects. In addition, […]
This is a systematic review that provides an overview of publications in which genome editing was used to change the genome of plants and investigates the occurrence of off-target effects (from January 1996 to May 2018 inclusive). Applications of genome editing techniques (CRISPR/Cas, TALENs, ZNF, meganucleases, ODM and base editors) on agriculturally relevant plants, as […]
In this study, CRISPR/Cas9 was used to alter six genes in a wild tomato species that were found to be important for the yield and nutritional content of domesticated tomatoes. Six genes of the wild tomatoes were changed which resulted in an alteration of their shape, size, the number of fruits and the nutrient content. […]
Scientists at the Imperial College London have developed a CRISPR/Cas-based gene drive in Anopheles gambiae that aims to modify a gene called doublesex. Doublesex plays an important role during embryonic development: it is crucial for whether mosquitoes develop as females or as males. The result of the change mediated by the gene drive is the […]
The genome of the model yeast organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae consists of 16 chromosomes. Using CRISPR/Cas9 scientists created a yeast strain that contains a single chromosome that was generated by successive end-to-end fusions of the 16 chromosomes and by deletions of the centromeres. It is the first synthetically generated yeast strain that consists of one linear […]
