Increased efficiency, precision and reliability in DNA editing

New method brings breakthrough in the precise introduction of mutations in human genomes. The new method will likely have many uses in basic research. For example, to study the roles of specific genes in an organism. © 123RF | nexusplexus - In a new study, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, describe improvements in the methods with which mutations can be introduced in human and other genomes - making these methods much more efficient and less error prone. In the field of genome editing, scientists often need to change one letter - corresponding to one of the DNA bases A denine, G uanine, C ytosine or T hymine - to another letter at one specific position in the genome. To do this, they use reagents that cut both strands of the DNA close to the position they want to change. They then provide the cell with DNA molecules that contain the desired new letter in the hope that the cell's repair systems will use these molecules to introduce the desired mutation when the DNA break is repaired.