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A CRISPR first produces squid as clear as glass

nature.com

11–20 of 71 posts

Re: A CRISPR first produces squid as clear as glass

#11
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They edited embryos: we determined whether a TDO-selective inhibitor (680C91) impeded pigmentation in developing embryos. The development of D. pealeii has been divided into 30 stages and eye pigmentation appears at ∼stage 25, while chromatophore pigmentation starts at stage 26 [21]. We added 680C91 to developing embryos at stage 20

While you're right they edited the embryos the sentence you quoted is describing a drug (680C91) that they bath-applied to inhibit the TDO enzyme (as a positive control), rather than the CRISPR strategy they used, in which they injected the Cas9 and sgRNA into the embryo.

Oops, I should have quoted this part, from the summary:

Knocking out TDO in squid embryos efficiently eliminated pigmentation. By precisely timing CRISPR-Cas9 delivery during early development, the degree of pigmentation could be finely controlled.

Re: A CRISPR first produces squid as clear as glass

#12
post #8

IIRC it's a big deal because this is the first crack at cephalopod DNA - I don't recall where I read this. Anyone has a source?

It's in the first sentence of the article: "...the first use of CRISPR in cephalopods, a class of marine invertebrates."

Re: A CRISPR first produces squid as clear as glass

#14

I feel creeped out/put off about this. These are intelligent beings, apparently limited only by their short lifespan. They communicate by modulating the pigments into patterns. Now that has been taken away. Imagine toasting some genes in a human embryo to the effect of lock in syndrome. Crispy! edit: I think this is a case for PETA to look into.

That's octopodes; squid are much less intelligent.

They're moving on next to much smaller (and hence even less intelligent) hummingbird bobtail squid.

Re: A CRISPR first produces squid as clear as glass

#17

As a learner, is it possible to self learn more about Gene Editing and these things, and can these things can be learned in a hacker way without going through a formal academic route ?

In my country (France) the use of CRISPR is highly regulated (its basically regulated as biological weapon material).

You could learn about it from articles and textbooks but are very unlikely to be able to play with it.

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