The field of medicine and microbiology is poised to benefit from the use of CRISPR.
The tool developed by the team led by Doudna and Banfield is a rare form of CRISPR that can be used to modify the genomes ofbacteria. The ability to easily engineer custom-designed phages, which has long evaded the research community, could help researchers control microbiomes without antibiotics or harsh chemicals. The work was described in a paper.
Bacteriophages are some of the most abundant and diverse organisms on Earth. The editing strategy works against the tremendous genetic diversity of the bugs. Discovery is at our fingertips here.
Bacteriophages, also known as phages, insert their genetic material into bacterial cells and hijack the machinery of their hosts in order to reproduce themselves, usually killing thebacteria in the process. Even though they look like alien spaceships, they are harmless to other organisms.
A type of immune defense mechanism used by manybacteria and archaea. The system consists of short snippets ofRNA that are related to the genes in question, and scissor-like enzymes that cut the genes into harmless pieces after being guided into place by theRNA.
phages were forced to specialize due to the evolutionary battle between the two defenses. There are a lot of different types of bugs, each with their own quirks. The most commonly used system doesn't work for this application because of the astounding diversity.
There are many ways to evade defenses, from being good at repairing their own genes to anti-CRISPRs. It has been difficult to develop a general-purpose tool for editing their genomes because of the adaptation that makes them so good at manipulating microbe.
Since 2008, the leaders of the project have collaborated on a number of CRISPR-based tools. The work that was performed at Berkeley Lab was cited by the committee for the prize.
A group of Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley researchers were studying the properties of a rare form of CRISPR, which is derived from a bacterium commonly found in the human mouth.
Adler said that the CRISPR-Cas13's fighting power was unexpected. The scientists were surprised that the system only targets and chops single-stranded viral RNA, even though it defeated all the phages it tested.
Like other types of viruses, some of the phages have DNA- andRNA-based genomes. All known viruses useRNA to express their genes Nine different strains of E. coli have almost no similarity to one another, despite the fact that all of them are caused by the same genes.
According to the co-author and staff scientist at Berkeley Lab, the findings show that the CRISPR system can defend against diverse DNA-based phages by targeting their RNA after it has been converted from DNA.
The team showed that the system can be used to modify the genomes of phages.
The first thing they did was make segments of the phage sequence and put them into the targetbacteria. A small percentage of the phages reproducing inside the microbes took up the altered genes and put them into their genomes.
The technique of homologous recombination is a longstanding one. The problem of isolating and replicating the phages with the edited sequence from the larger pool of normal phages is decades old.
The CRISPR-Cas13 is here. The scientists engineered another strain of host microbe to have a system that senses and defends against the normal phage genome. The small number of edited phages were able to evade the CRISPR defense system when they were exposed to the second round of hosts. They were able to duplicate themselves and survive.
More than 99% of the phages produced in the two-step processes contained the edits, which ranged from enormous multi-gene deletions all the way down to precise replacements of a single atom.
The work on phage engineering is one of the most important achievements in the field. seamless engineering ofbacteria and their phages has the potential to make a real difference in all aspects of the bioeconomy. This engineering capability will have a huge impact on everything from biomanufacturing to food production.
The scientists are working to expand the system to use it on more types of phages, starting with ones that impact the soil. It is being used to explore the genetic mysteries within the phage genomes. It's not clear what other amazing tools and technologies can be inspired by.
The Broad-spectrum CRISPR-Cas13a can be used for efficient phage genome editing.
Journal information: Nature Microbiology
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