Crispr/Cas9 system was ideated based on bacteria’s defence system. Bacteria captures snippets of invading viruses and create RNA segments to detect and destroy the respective or similar viruses. Using this idea, scientists have emerged Crispr/Cas9 systems to permanently modify genes within organisms.
Crispr/Cas9 system mainly involves the components Cas9 protein and guide RNA (gRNA). Cas9 protein has two functions. One is to unzip the DNA at the targeted region to allow the matching RNA to bind to it. The other is to cut the targeted region of the DNA.
The informational video on the right, created by Prof Feng Zhang from McGovern Institute for Brain Research, MIT, clearly explains the principles of Crispr/Cas9 systems.
