Scientists use RNA-targeting CRISPR systems to drive genome editing across phage diversity

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Scientists from the Innovative Genomics Institute at UC Berkeley, North Carolina State University and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab use RNA-targeting CRISPR systems to drive genome editing across phage diversity. Bacterial viruses (bacteriophages or phages) are estimated to be among the most diverse and abundant biological entities on earth. As bacterial predators, phages are their host bacteria are locked in a coevolutionary arms race, driving the evolution of phage defense-systems such as CRISPR-Cas and ways to undermine these systems encoded by phages. Because many of the genome editing tools are derived from this arms race, tools for phage genome-editing have limited efficacy. Scientists’ ability to perform genetics in, nonetheless engineer, phages remains inherently limited. By investigating a rare and unconventional CRISPR-Cas system (Cas13a), researchers from the Innovative Genomics Institute at University of California Berkeley in collaboration with North Carolina State Univer

m-CAFEs SFA — Microbial Community Analysis & Functional Evaluation in Soils M-CAFEs DOE BER Science Focus Area · LBNL-Led Microbial Community Analysis & Functional Evaluation in Soils Soil microbes shape the productivity and resilience of bioenergy crops. Understanding and improving the invisible community around plant roots — the rhizosphere — is critical to advancing DOE missions. 12 Principal Investigators 6 Institutions 4 Research Areas DOE BER Funded Partner Institutions Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory UC Berkeley NC State University Stanford University UC Riverside Boston Universit

Scientists use RNA-targeting CRISPR systems to drive genome editing across phage diversity

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