Genome Editing

Abstract

Genome editing has perhaps become the most popular toolbox for generating targeted mutations. Over 0.3% of all publications in PubMed are currently concerned with this topic, demonstrating its importance. Since 2012, there has been an exponential explosion in research articles, owing primarily due to the clustered regulatory interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated system (Cas). This chapter provides background understanding of the three major genome editing techniques, i.e. zinc finger nucleases, transcription activator-like effector nucleases and CRISPR/Cas. Genome editing has been applied to organisms from all three domains of life, i.e. prokaryotes, archaea and eukaryotes. This has provided powerful tools for custom engineering genes of interest, providing unprecedented possibilities for synthetic biological applications. As an example of biotechnological applications, CRISPR/Cas9 editing of crop plants is discussed. Chances and risks of genome editing are also considered, reflecting the debate among scientists and policy makers. In particular, human genome editing is of global concern and raises important ethical and regulatory issues.