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Puzzling Question in Bacterial Immune System Answered

Berkeley Researchers Uncover the Key to Self-Awareness in Genome Editor

A central question has been answered regarding a protein that plays an essential role in the bacterial immune system and is fast becoming a valuable tool for genetic engineering. A team of researchers with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) Berkeley have determined how the bacterial enzyme known as Cas9, guided by RNA, is able to identify and degrade foreign DNA during viral infections, as well as induce site-specific genetic changes in animal and plant cells. Through a combination of single-molecule imaging and bulk biochemical experiments, the research team has shown that the genome-editing ability of Cas9 is made possible by the presence of short DNA sequences known as “PAM,” for protospacer adjacent motif. (more…)

Programmable DNA Scissors Found for Bacterial Immune System

By Guest PostJuly 2, 2012Sciencearchaeon microbe, artificial enzyme, bacteria, bacterial immune system, berkeley lab, cas9 protein, crispr, crispr loci, crrna guide sequence, crrna molecule, dna scissors, double rna structure, eukaryotic organism, foreign dna, fungi, genetic element, genetic engineers, genomics researchers, hhmi, human cell, ines fonfara, jennifer doudna, krzysztof chylinski, martin jinek, michael hauer, tracrrna

Discovery Could Lead to Editing Tool for Genomes

Genetic engineers and genomics researchers should welcome the news from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) where an international team of scientists has discovered a new and possibly more effective means of editing genomes. This discovery holds potentially big implications for advanced biofuels and therapeutic drugs, as genetically modified microorganisms, such as bacteria and fungi, are expected to play a key role in the green chemistry production of these and other valuable chemical products.

Jennifer Doudna, a biochemist with Berkeley Lab’s Physical Biosciences Division and professor at the University of California (UC) Berkeley, helped lead the team that identified a double-RNA structure responsible for directing a bacterial protein to cleave foreign DNA at specific nucleotide sequences. Furthermore, the research team found that it is possible to program the protein with a single RNA to enable cleavage of essentially any DNA sequence. (more…)

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Puzzling Question in Bacterial Immune System Answered

Programmable DNA Scissors Found for Bacterial Immune System