Li Jiashun, Wu Shuaishuai, Zhang Kaidian, Sun Xueqiong, Lin Wenwen, Wang Cong, Lin Senjie
State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, College of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361101, China.
State Key Laboratory of Marine Resource Utilization in the South China Sea, School of Marine Biology and Fisheries, Hainan University, Haikou 570203, China.
Microorganisms. 2024 Jan 6;12(1):118. doi: 10.3390/microorganisms12010118.
Initially discovered over 35 years ago in the bacterium as a defense system against invasion of viral (or other exogenous) DNA into the genome, CRISPR/Cas has ushered in a new era of functional genetics and served as a versatile genetic tool in all branches of life science. CRISPR/Cas has revolutionized the methodology of gene knockout with simplicity and rapidity, but it is also powerful for gene knock-in and gene modification. In the field of marine biology and ecology, this tool has been instrumental in the functional characterization of 'dark' genes and the documentation of the functional differentiation of gene paralogs. Powerful as it is, challenges exist that have hindered the advances in functional genetics in some important lineages. This review examines the status of applications of CRISPR/Cas in marine research and assesses the prospect of quickly expanding the deployment of this powerful tool to address the myriad fundamental marine biology and biological oceanography questions.
CRISPR/Cas系统最初是在35多年前于细菌中被发现的，作为一种针对病毒（或其他外源）DNA侵入基因组的防御系统，它开创了功能遗传学的新时代，并在生命科学的各个分支中作为一种多功能的遗传工具发挥作用。CRISPR/Cas系统以简单性和快速性彻底改变了基因敲除的方法，而且它在基因敲入和基因修饰方面也很强大。在海洋生物学和生态学领域，这个工具对于“暗”基因的功能表征以及基因旁系同源物的功能分化记录起到了重要作用。尽管它很强大，但仍存在一些挑战，这些挑战阻碍了某些重要谱系中功能遗传学的进展。本综述考察了CRISPR/Cas在海洋研究中的应用现状，并评估了迅速扩大这一强大工具的应用以解决众多基础海洋生物学和生物海洋学问题的前景。
