CRISPR-Cas9 Genome Editing Technology: Development and Applications

Abstract

The discovery of an ancient adaptive
immune system in bacteria, called the CRISPR/Cas
system, has revolutionalized the modern science. The
bacterial proteins that identify and target viral DNA
for degradation have been characterized and
manipulated for a variety of uses in agriculture,
molecular biology and medicine. Clustered Regularly
Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats
(CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated (Cas) protein 9 system
provides a robust and multiplex genome editing tool,
enabling researchers to precisely manipulate specific
genomic elements and facilitating the elucidation of
target gene function in biology and diseases.
CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technique has set the
stage for remarkable developments. This technology
is used to modify, regulate, or mark genomic loci in a
wide variety of cells and organisms from all three
domains of life. These results highlight a new era in
which genomic manipulation is no longer a
bottleneck to experiments, paving the way toward
fundamental discoveries in biology, with applications
in all branches of biotechnology, as well as strategies
for human therapeutics.