What is CRISPR/Cas9 Technology?
The word “CRISPR” basically stands for”clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats”. The repeats mentioned in the name are a part of the DNA of a bacterium.
However, the primary function of CRISPR technology is DNA’s alteration. This technology allows scientists to modify the gene function. So, scientists can correct the defects of genes and can treat diseases with the help of this technology. Also, it helps to stop the spread of any disease.
But, where the use of this technology has a lot of benefits, it also causes an increase in ethical effects.
Undoubtedly, it is a fantastic technology that many people still cannot believe it. But the ones who believe it, say, clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) can do anything.
Moreover, this technology is a perfect tool to fight against the virus. This technology helps strengthen the immune system of a living body. Any infection can attack a residing body, including humans. With the help of CRISPR, the immune system will be able to defeat any infectious cells that attack a bacterial cell.
The repeats in CRISPR are copies of small viruses. Bacteria use these copies to identify infectious viruses. They can easily fight and break them apart after finding. This technology helps a lot to improve the crops by protecting them from diseases.
Also, by altering the DNA of various crops and plants, scientists have been very successful in increasing the outcomes.
There were many other technologies to alter the genes of crops, animals, and plants. This technology gave results in a short time after coming into the market. Also, it proved to be less expensive than any other such technologies.
Therefore, CRISPR has become the most widely used technology. Scientists have successfully edited the genes of many plants and animals with this technology. The time is near when we will have those plants and animals in our homes.
How Does it work?
The working process of CRISPR is quite impressive. As we previously talked about the repeats in this technology, there are also spacers between those repeats. Just like repeats, the “spacers” are short variable sequences of the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR).
The bacteria usually derive these spacers from the DNA of infectious viruses that attack the bacteria. So, we can call them a genetic memory of those infections caused by viruses.
Because of this, it will be easy for the CRISPR to destroy any viral DNA sequence that matches the spacers. Hence, it can easily fight against infections, and additionally, the bacteria get a new spacer.
Going in the depth of the process, we would know how perfectly this technology works. Here’s a technique that the CRISPR system uses to protect the bacteria from repeated viral attacks.
First of all, it takes the DNA of a virus that attacks. That virus is then cut into small pieces/segments. Then, these segments are inserted into the CRISPR sequence. Every segment is a new spacer.
Then, the process is repeats, and the spacers of that DNA are copied for the future. They produced RNA is less complicated than DNA. It only has a single-chain molecule. The chain is further cut into pieces. These short pieces are known as CRISPR RNAs.
Finally, these RNAs help the bacterial molecular machinery fight against the attacking viruses. As we already know that these RNA sequences are transcript from the DNA of previously attacking viruses. So, because of being exact matches, they are the perfect guides.
Because of the excellent immunity, perfect technique to recognize the infectious viruses and destroying them, the CRISPR has already become widely used technology. These impressive specifications of the CRISPR immune system are not only useful for bacteria. It has many more applications such as the researches, medicines, and many other industries.
