Crispr-Cas9
Crispr stands for clustered regularly Interspaced Palindromic Regions, while cas9 is a restriction enzyme cutting DNA from a specific site. The Crispr sequences are derived from bacteriophages affecting bacteria previously, bacterium recognizes the sequences and degrades it. One of the major contributions regarding crispr-cas9 was brought about by an eminent biochemist and geneticist Jennifer Duodna and a French researcher Emmenuella Cherpentier. They were also awarded with Nobel Prize for their remarkable contributions to science in 2020. Crispr-Cas9 is one of the latest gene-editing tools to cure genetic disorders by genetic manipulation. The process takes place naturally in bacterium as a defensive mechanism against viruses. During the process, guide RNA binds with specific complementary sequence resulting in the formation of RNA-DNA hybrid, guide RNA makes sure that DNA should be cut from the specific site. Consequently, complex is degraded by the enzyme cas9. Repair mechanism