Bridge Editing Shows Promise for Altering Genomes

ISAAA July 31, 2024

Scientists from the Arc Institute in California discovered a DNA-editing system in bacteria which has the potential to enable bigger changes in genomes compared to what CRISPR gene editing system can achieve. This breakthrough is reported in Nature.

The new genome editor, called bridge editing, links two pieces of DNA which can be used to edit huge sections of a genome. It is composed of a recombinase protein, which links with a guide RNA like the CRISPR-Cas9 protein. Then the guide RNA dictates which are the two DNA sequences to search. One sequence specifies the target site in the genome to be edited, while the other sequence dictates the DNA to be altered. Bridge editing can be used to add, delete, or reverse DNA sequences of any length.

According to the researchers, bridge editing is effectively scarless as it does not leave behind pieces of DNA; thus providing an extraordinary level of control in engineering genomes.

Read the original article in New Scientist.