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Burning Genes to a CRISPR: A Genetics Activity

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CRISPR, the latest gene-editing tool in modern biological research, is heralded as one of the greatest biomedical discoveries of this decade. Up until the discovery of CRISPR, gene-editing was a difficult process. Editing genes in a cell (and hence an organism) requires the ability to make cuts at precise points along the DNA of that cell (for example, the beginning and end of a gene to replace that gene with a differ- ent version). Before CRISPR, existing molecular techniques utilized proteins that did not allow scientists to cut at specific sequences of their choosing. Genetic modifica- tion was therefore difficult, inaccurate, and limited. CRISPR on the other hand, uses short DNA sequences embedded in proteins to recognize target DNA sequences to make cuts. Reprogramming DNA sequences to target another DNA sequence of your choice is extremely easy – simply a matter of rearranging the nucleotides (A, T, G, C). In effect, CRISPR allows scientists to choose the exact location within the DNA to make cuts, thus making genetic modification easy, accurate, and extremely versatile. CRISPR can be used to treat genetic diseases and cancer, develop new drugs, create organs for transplant, and modify foods. In this activity, the lines on the chromosomes separating each gene represent unique DNA sequences. In order to modify a gene in an embryo by replacing an al- lele with a different one, the cuts made in the embryo chromosome must match the edges of the replacement allele exactly (represented by the shapes of the lines here). Hence, the alleles gathered from cutting apart the chromosomes inside can be used to identify the exact "sequence" where the original chromosomes will need to be cut to replace the original allele with the new one. In this manner, a dragon embryo which has no horn (hh = horn absent) can be genetically modified via CRISPR to a dragon with a horn present (Hh = HORN PRESENT). + ward ' s science Dragon Genetics Background:

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