The CRISPR genome editor has become a very important tool in medical research and can ultimately have a significant impact on everything from agriculture to the treatment of a host of inherited diseases. However, he is far from perfect, since he can not edit any part of DNA. But everything can change thanks to a new modification capable of "giving access" to almost half of the molecule.
The fact is that now the notorious CRISPR-Cas9 ligament is used, in which the latter part acts as a "guidance system" to a certain part of the DNA molecule. Cas9, or, more precisely, Streptococcus Ryogenes Cas9 (SpCas9), by its nature, has extremely limited DNA regions on which it can act. According to the available information, this is about 9.9% of the entire genome.
A group of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology led by Professor Joseph Jacobson have discovered another enzyme that could expand the potential use of CRISPR.
To do this, the experts used computational algorithms to search for bacterial sequences to determine if there were any other similar SpCas9 compounds. As a result, a much more interesting enzyme Streptococcus Canis was discovered, named ScCas9 accordingly. Unlike its “brother”, it requires only one G-nucleotide instead of two to attach to DNA. According to the authors of the work,
Vladimir Kuznetsov