Search results for "crisp"
showing 10 items of 104 documents
Prophages and Past Prophage-Host Interactions Revealed by CRISPR Spacer Content in a Fish Pathogen
2020
The role of prophages in the evolution, diversification, or virulence of the fish pathogen Flavobacterium columnare has not been studied thus far. Here, we describe a functional spontaneously inducing prophage fF4 from the F. columnare type strain ATCC 23463, which is not detectable with commonly used prophage search methods. We show that this prophage type has a global distribution and is present in strains isolated from Finland, Thailand, Japan, and North America. The virions of fF4 are myoviruses with contractile tails and infect only bacterial strains originating from Northern Finland. The fF4 resembles transposable phages by similar genome organization and several gene orthologs. Addit…
Broadening the phenotypic spectrum and physiological insights related toEIF2S3variants
2021
Mental deficiency, epilepsy, hypogonadism, microcephaly and obesity (MEHMO) syndrome is a severe X-linked syndrome caused by pathogenic variants in EIF2S3. The gene encodes the γ subunit of the eukaryotic translation initiation factor-2, eIF2, essential for protein translation. A recurrent frameshift variant is described in severely affected patients while missense variants usually cause a moderate phenotype. We identified a novel missense variant (c.433A>G, p.(Met145Val)) in EIF2S3 in a mildly affected patient. Studies on zebrafish confirm the pathogenicity of this novel variant and three previously published missense variants. CRISPR/Cas9 knockout of eif2s3 in zebrafish embryos recapitula…
The plants of the future. : genome editing in biotechnology
2021
The evolution of life has led to the formation of complex systems where plants are essentials. Homo sapiens’ success is based on its ability to obtain food. In what remains of this century, the world population will increase by a quarter of the current total, reaching 10 billion people. This is itself a major challenge, amplified by the environmental conditions resulting from global change and the threat to sustainability derived from the use of the planet’s natural resources. Thus, we wonder if we will be able to respond to this challenge and, to that end, how the plants of the future should look. Recent advances in sequencing techniques allow us to identify genomes at a low cost, and geno…
Seaweed fails to prevent ocean acidification impact on foraminifera along a shallow-water CO2 gradient
2015
Ocean acidification causes biodiversity loss, alters ecosystems, and may impact food security, as shells of small organisms dissolve easily in corrosive waters. There is a suggestion that photosynthetic organisms could mitigate ocean acidification on a local scale, through seagrass protection or seaweed cultivation, as net ecosystem organic production raises the saturation state of calcium carbonate making seawater less corrosive. Here, we used a natural gradient in calcium carbonate saturation, caused by shallow-water CO2 seeps in the Mediterranean Sea, to assess whether seaweed that is resistant to acidification (Padina pavonica) could prevent adverse effects of acidification on epiphytic…
Nanoscale delivery of phytochemicals targeting CRISPR/Cas9 for cancer therapy.
2021
Abstract Background With growing global prevalence, cancer is a major cause of disease-related deaths. The understanding of the fundamental tumor pathology has contributed to the development of agents targeting oncogenic signaling pathways. Although these agents have increased survival for defined cancers, the therapeutic choices are still limited due to the development of drug resistance. CRISPR/Cas9 is a powerful new technology in cancer therapy by facilitating the identification of novel treatment targets and development of cell-based treatment strategies. Purpose We focused on applications of the CRISPR/Cas9 system in cancer therapy and discuss nanoscale delivery of cytotoxic phytochemi…
Deploying Genome Editing Tools for Dissecting the Biology of Nut Trees
2019
Walnuts are among the most important nut crops grown in temperate regions of the world. Commercial production in California, and increasingly worldwide, relies on only few clonally grafted scion genotypes, particularly “Chandler,” and more recently clonally propagated disease-resistant rootstocks. Diseases, nematodes, insect pests, abiotic stresses, and other nutritional and environmental factors, can reduce walnut productivity and quality, affecting grower profitability. The California Walnut Breeding Program at UC Davis has developed and released scion cultivars and rootstocks to help address some of these problems. Sequencing of the walnut genome is expected to speed walnut breeding by f…
CRISPR-Cas12a-Based Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Harboring the E484K Mutation
2021
The novel respiratory virus SARS-CoV-2 is rapidly evolving across the world with the potential of increasing its transmission and the induced disease. Here, we applied the CRISPR-Cas12a system to detect, without the need of sequencing, SARS-CoV-2 genomes harboring the E484K mutation, first identified in the Beta variant and catalogued as an escape mutation. The E484K mutation creates a canonical protospacer adjacent motif for Cas12a recognition in the resulting DNA amplicon, which was exploited to obtain a differential readout. We analyzed a series of fecal samples from hospitalized patients in Valencia (Spain), finding one infection with SARS-CoV-2 harboring the E484K mutation, which was t…
Zebrafish as a Model to Evaluate a CRISPR/Cas9-Based Exon Excision Approach as a Future Treatment Option for EYS-Associated Retinitis Pigmentosa
2021
Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is an inherited retinal disease (IRD) with an overall prevalence of 1 in 4000 individuals. Mutations in EYS (Eyes shut homolog) are among the most frequent causes of non-syndromic autosomal recessively inherited RP and act via a loss-of-function mechanism. In light of the recent successes for other IRDs, we investigated the therapeutic potential of exon skipping for EYS-associated RP. CRISPR/Cas9 was employed to generate zebrafish from which the region encompassing the orthologous exons 37-41 of human EYS (eys exons 40-44) was excised from the genome. The excision of these exons was predicted to maintain the open reading frame and to result in the removal of exactl…
Crispr gene editing in lipid disorders and atherosclerosis: Mechanisms and opportunities
2021
Elevated circulating concentrations of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) have been conclusively demonstrated in epidemiological and intervention studies to be causally associated with the development of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Enormous advances in LDL-C reduction have been achieved through the use of statins, and in recent years, through drugs targeting proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9), a key regulator of the hepatic LDL-receptor. Existing approaches to PCSK9 targeting have used monoclonal antibodies or RNA interference. Although these approaches do not require daily dosing, as statins do, repeated subcutaneous injections are nevertheless neces…
From Knowledge to Action, Analysis of the Decision Making Process in Africa : the Case of the State Contract Teacher Policy
2011
Policy analysis in Africa has mainly focused on their evaluation. Now that several reforms are undertaken and that the progressive move toward democracy allows new actors to enter the political arena, it is useful to analyze how decisions on public issues are made. The dissertation examines the reform of the teacher recruitment policy in francophone Africa. The reform consisted in changing the teacher status in order to allow the government to pay a lower salary to new teachers. The drawbacks of the usual policy and research from the area of economics of education demonstrating that the reform was necessary put the issue on the agenda. If many countries adopted it, some have not. Factors th…