As a genomics journal, genome sequencing is our bread and butter, and we have had a couple of large-scale genome sequencing studies in crops. Lin Zeng and colleagues looked at pistachio. They sequenced the genomes of 93 different pistachio cultivars, and 49 wild trees, including some from different species of Pistacia. By comparing the genomes, they were able to date the domestication of the species to around 8000 years ago, and find that, perhaps unsurprisingly, farmers have selected trees with larger seed size. A similar study was performed by Jinyu Wang and colleagues to compare the d ..read more

Within only a few years, a technology referred to as “CRISPR” has not only changed the way scientists make specific changes in DNA, but also the way people can think about treating diseases. Meanwhile, CRISPR-Cas systems in the microbial kingdom have hastened the emergence of new genome engineering toolboxes. A new study in Genome Biology, completed by a team led by Dr. Wei Li at Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, provides us with more viable Cas12a/Cpf1 orthologs, which expands our choices of CRISPR-Cas-based genome engineering, and enhances the targeting efficiencies of Cas1 ..read more

The breaking news of the birth of twin Chinese babies whose CCR5 genes have been edited to give them protection from HIV, has once again put genome engineering at the center of heated discussion. Human and agricultural genome engineering have been the focus of many researchers, as well as policy making agencies, however, genome editing tools can be used not only in generating organisms with certain desired traits, but can also be used to learn more about particular biological mechanisms. Genome editing in agriculture Plant pathogen resistance has always been a desired trait for crops, which c ..read more

Historically, the field of genome engineering in laboratory animals has relied on the use of stem cells to target new mutations in mice. This all changed with genome editing tools that allow researchers to work directly in embryos and tissues. Starting from simple mutations, strategies are now evolving for the introduction of increasingly sophisticated genetic changes. The basis of these current technical improvements is the CRISPR/Cas9 system, which is revolutionizing our ability to generate targeted mutations directly in the embryo, used in conjunction with single-stranded DNA donors. Whils ..read more

Gene Editing in the News There have been several stories in the news recently about human embryo gene editing: both good and bad. The development of CRISPR-Cas9 technology, one of the most recent and celebrated gene editing techniques, has resulted in a series of experiments using human embryos that have brought the ethics of gene editing to the fore. It started in 2015 when a team of Chinese researchers used a gene editing technique called CRISPR-Cas9 to edit the genes of human embryos in an effort to ‘remove’ the part of the DNA that was responsible for a fatal blood disorder (β-thalassaemi ..read more

Dr Cristobal Uauy is a Project Leader at the Crop Genetics Department, John Innes Centre, Norwich, where he is working on wheat genetics and genomics. His lab uses molecular genetic approaches to identify genes for productivity traits in cereals. Prof Wendy Harwood is a Senior Scientist working at the Crops Genetics Department, John Innes Centre, Norwich where she works on crop genetic modification and genome editing. Also responsible for the BRACT crop transformation facility that provides crop genetic modification resources to the research community Prof Lars Østergaard is Head of the Crops ..read more

Human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) attacks human cells by binding to a CD4 receptor and then interacting which another receptor, CCR5. The latter has been identified a while ago already as a potential therapeutic target in HIV-1 patients: turns out that individuals with homozygotic deletion of a 32bp fragment of the CCR5 gene are resistant to the viral advance. In 2014 The New England of Medicine published a study demonstrating probably the first clinical trial of genome editing-based therapy: an application of zinc finger nucleases to modify autologous CD4+ cells, delete the feral 32bp r ..read more

Fast and cost effective genome integration with CrEdit Ronda et al., 2015 Efficient gene editing tools are essential for studying cellular processes and in engineering organisms for biotechnology and medicine. RNA-guided CRISPR/ Cas9 technology has been used for gene editing in various organisms. One of the bottlenecks in production of biochemicals and pharmaceuticals in yeast is stable and homogeneous expression of pathway genes. Ronda et al. have developed a novel method called CrEdit (CRISPR/Cas9 mediated genome Editing) that enables fast and cost effective genome integration for engineeri ..read more

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