11. Gene Editing Flashcards
What is gene editing
changing the nucleotide sequence at a specific chromosomal locus to any desired sequence
DNA endonuclease
used to cut the DNA at specific target locations within the genome
Results of DNA endonuclease
double-stranded breaks in the DNA - allows for genes to be modified
What happens when DNA is not repaired after DSB?
chromosomal instability and incomplete replication in the genome - cell death, cancer, other mutations
Nonhomologous end joining (NHEJ)
- allows for gene knockouts/downs
1. Proteins recognize double stranded breaks
2. protein complex attaches to the end of the broken DNA
3. The ends are trimmed to remove nucleotides until a blunt end is achieved
4. DNA ligase glues the blunt ends back together.
Homology directed repair (HDR)
- allows for gene insertion/modifications
1. A DSB occurs
2. Nucleases trim off a portion of the broken strand RAD15 binds the undamaged chromatid
3. Strand invasion occurs resulting in a displacement loop
4. DNA replication within the D loop synthesises new DNA using the sister chromatid as a template
5. DNA strands are trimmed to blunt ends and are ligated to finish repair
Compare NHEJ and HDR:
1. Nucleotide trimming?
2. Prone to error?
3. Uses a DNA template?
4. When does it occur?
5. Result?
- Yes and yes
- Yes and no
- no and yes
- before DNA rep and after DNA rep
- Gene knockdowns/out and gene knock ins
What do gene editing tools do?
- exploit the cells natural DNA repair mechanisms
- translationally fused to a sequence-specific DNA binding domain
- Incorporated into a complex with an RNA molecule
Compare ZFNs and TALENs
1. Origins
2. Structure
3. Target Organisms
4. Endonuclease
5. Cleavage method
6. Drawback
- african clawed frog and xanthomonas
- DNA-binding loop with zinc finger-like structures and Tandem array of DNA binding repeats
- Somatic and pluripotent stem cells in humans and yeasts, fruitflies, roundworms
- foki and fokie
- dimerise and dimerise
- costly, difficult to produce, off target cleavage and costly/off target cleavage
CRISPR/Cas9
Clustered regularly interspersed short palindromic repeats
- found DNA nucleases encoded in the genome (CRISPR-associated cas genes)
- natural defense mechanism in prokaryotes
CRISP/Cas 9 is a natural defense mechanism in prokaryotes, how?
- sequences are transcribed into non-coding RNA
- tracer RNA gene is also transcribed into tracrRNA and cas9 is produced
- processed into crRNAs by cas-encoded RNases
tracrRNA and crRNA form a complex with Cas endonucleases to cleave foreign DNA, how?
- tracrRNA binds to the Cas endonuclease
- crRNA binds to tracrRNA via complementary base pairing
- the tracrRNA-crRNA-Cas complex cleaves the invading DNA into a DBS, deactivating the invader
What can the bacteria store and for what?
It can store the cleaved DNA in its genome for future invader recognition or inheritance
- can incorporate the cleaved foreign DNA into its CRISPR region
What have scientist changed with CRISPR?
- re-engineered CRISPR to target any sequence of interest
1. crRNA and tracrRNA are fused together into single guide RNA
2. scientist can then insert their own target DNA into the sgRNA gene - creating a unique crRNA
3. Cas9 is used as the endonuclease
One Cas-9 make the cut, endogenous DNA repair finishes CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing
- NHEJ repair of double stranded breaks results in deletion of one or more nucleotides
- NHEJ can sometimes introduce insertions of DNA derived from elswehere in the genome
- HDR uses supplied DNA fragments as the template for DNA syntehsis