CRISPR Cas9 Lecture Notes

This lecture discusses CRISPR Cas9 and the bacterial immune system.

CRISPR Cas9

A bacterial immune system that protects against viruses.

Innate Immune System

Immune system present from birth, including barriers like skin.

Acquired Immune System

Immune system developed over a lifetime through infections and vaccinations, creating immunological memory with antibodies and cells like lymphocytes and T cells.

Bacteriophage

A virus that infects bacteria.

Dr. Yoshizumi Ishino

Discovered the bacterial immune system and identified repeat regions in the bacterial genome.

CRISPR

Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats

Palindromes

Sequences that read the same backward and forward, forming hairpin structures in the bacterial genome.

Spacer DNAs

Unique DNA sequences in CRISPR regions that match viral DNA.

Cas Genes

Genes located upstream of the CRISPR region, associated with the function of the bacterial immune system.

Helicases

Enzymes that unwind DNA.

Endonucleases

Enzymes that cut DNA.

Jennifer Doudna, Emmanuelle Charpentier, Steve Pugh

Scientists who hijacked the bacterial immune system.

Guide RNA

A synthesized molecule composed of a proto sequence (complement to a gene) and palindromic repeats (tracer RNA).

Cas9

A Cas protein specific to Streptococcus pyogenes that acts as both a helicase and an endonuclease.

Plasmid

Circular DNA used to insert genetic material into a eukaryotic system.

Nuclear Localization Signal (NLS)

A sequence in a plasmid that will take the plasmid into the nucleus.

GFP

Used for detection of the cells that have the plasmid.

PAM (Protospacer Adjacent Motif)

Diguanines, two G's right beside each other, that Cas9 looks for to bind to DNA.

Non-Homologous End Joining

The process of bringing together and fusing cut DNA ends, often resulting in a mutation.

Homologous Recombination

Integration of a new gene into the genome.

Editing Domain

Edits the epigenome by removing epigenetic tags.

Dystrophin

The protein that is affected in muscular dystrophy.

Gene Drive

A self-replicating CRISPR program that inserts CRISPR RNA and CAS genes to copy itself.