Scientists expand CRISPR-Cas9 genetic inheritance control in mammals

Led by graduate student Alexander Weitzel, Grunwald, Cooper and their colleagues have now succeeded in developing CRISPR-Cas9 inheritance control in male mice by shifting the gene editing window to more closely match the timing of meiosis in both sexes. Their results were published December 23, 2021 in the journal PLOS Biology. The achievement advances the prospects of scientists being able to use genetic editing for new laboratory models in an array of research pursuits, from investigations of human disease to therapeutic drug design to invasive species removal. “For these gene conversion strategies to work in any context—in the lab or in wild populations—you need the mechanism of gene conversion to work in both males and females,” said Cooper, associate professor in the Section of Cell and Developmental Biology, Division of Biological Sciences. “It seems as though the reason this process was previously working in females is because we were closer to the female meiotic window. Now that we’ve moved Cas9 expression to within the meiotic window in males, it works in them too.”

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