Prime editing

Prime editing is a genetic engineering technique that allows for precise editing of DNA sequences within a genome. It is a more advanced form of CRISPR technology, which has been widely used in genetic engineering. Prime editing was developed by researchers at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.

Overview

Prime editing is a versatile and precise genome editing method that directly writes new genetic information into a specified DNA site. It uses a catalytically impaired Cas9 endonuclease fused to an engineered reverse transcriptase, programmed with a prime editing guide RNA (pegRNA) that both specifies the target site and encodes the desired edit.

Advantages

Prime editing has several advantages over traditional CRISPR-Cas9 editing. It can make a wide range of edits, including all 12 possible base-to-base conversions, insertions, and deletions. It also has fewer byproducts and can make precise edits without double-strand breaks or donor DNA.

Applications

Prime editing has potential applications in both research and medicine. It could be used to correct genetic mutations that cause diseases, create models of disease in animals, and engineer cells and organisms with desirable traits.

Limitations

While prime editing is a powerful tool, it also has limitations. It requires careful design of the pegRNA and the process is more complex than traditional CRISPR-Cas9 editing. There are also concerns about off-target effects and potential for unintended consequences.

See also

• Genetic engineering
• CRISPR
• Broad Institute
• Cas9

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