An exciting time for genome editing: an interview with David R.Liu

• 来源期刊: 国家科学评论（英文版）
• 年，卷（期）: 2019,（3）
• 页码范围: 452-454
• 页数: 3页
• 语种: 英文
• DOI: 10.1093/nsr/nwy146

摘要

In 1987, several Osaka University researchers discovered a special kind of clustered DNA repeats in bacteria.Within a few years, two other groups independently discovered the same phenomenon but no one knew its function at the time.Only a small handful of scientists studied this property from its discovery in 1987 to 2005.It was then that the function of these DNA repeats, which were named Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR), was finally elucidated.Researchers found that CRISPR, when combined with its CRISPR-associated partner (Cas), is crucial for the functioning of the bacterial adaptive immune system against viral phage infection.CRISPR sequences can be transcribed into targeting RNA molecules, and Cas enzymes are guided by these RNAs to cut specific viral DNA loci, rendering resistance against the viral infection.