With the editor of the genome has been achieved immunity to poison

Notorious to all readers of our website editor genome CRISPR/Cas9, which allows scientists to make more discoveries, again struck the global community, on what is capable. If earlier CRISPR/Cas9 allowed to change the structure of cells or help to treat a number of diseases, now scientists have been able to give a living organism almost sverhsposobnostyami. Namely, immune to the strongest poison.

The editor of the genome of CRISPR/Cas9 is capable of much!

As the editor of the genome allows to deal with the effects of the poison?

According to the editors of the journal Nature, using CRISPR/Cas9, scientists have reproduced in the genome of the fly Drosophila mutations that give immunity to poison ouabaine. Ouabain — toxin contained in the leaves and stems of the plant Asclepias curassavica (another name for asclepias), which is toxic to most insects, and even humans. Plant cells of the milkweed contain a number of substances which, without going into physiological details, lead to over-stimulation of cardiomyocytes, ventricular fibrillation, and as a result, death from cardiac arrest.

However, a number of insects (e.g., some species of butterflies) have learned to protect their lives due to the fact that they live on branches and leaves of such plants. As you know, these insects have immunity to the strongest poison, and the scientists decided to try to “transfer” this property from one insect to another. How do you feel about such frequent use of genome editor? Tell us about it in our chat in Telegram.

See also: Editor CRISPR genome was first used for the treatment of HIV

United group of scientists from France, Germany and the USA tried to “reproduce evolution” with the editor of the genome of CRISPR/Cas9. Took the monarch butterfly, which are immune to the strong poison of the milkweed. It is known that during the development of the species of butterflies at a certain stage, got immunity to poison. Responsible for these processes genes have been carefully studied, and then came the time of the experiment. The object of the study, the researchers chose the fruit fly, and with the editor of the genome has created a genetically edited fruit flies with different mutations responsible for the presence of immunity to poison. The number of mutati ranged from one to 5-6 depending on what enzymes are required or not required to develop. All the species of flies were tested for survival in an environment with a high concentration of the poison ouabain.

The survival rate of larvae (left) and adult Drosophila (right)

In the end, scientists found that three separate mutations in the enzyme system, it is sufficient to have resistance to poison. Scientists note that their experiment will help in the development of new methods to combat poisons and toxins, as well as in the creation of drugs that can act at the gene level. However, the uniqueness of the work not just that. What did the team of experts of the three countries is unique in many ways, the experiment that has helped not just “add” a living organism a new property, but also allowed us to reproduce a multi-step process of adaptation at the example of how it was in the process of evolution.


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