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A recently published paper by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Arc Institute in the U.S. describes a new RNA-guided gene editing system.
This tool builds on an older discovery: that one of the genes in the IS110 family of bacterial transposons contains the instructions for cells to make an RNA molecule with two loops.
Scientists found this RNA could bind to two pieces of DNA, rather than the usual one piece, and form a bridge between them. This is a very useful ability.
Transposons
Some genes were able to move around within the genome.
These genes were called mobile elements or transposons.
Between 1948 and 1983, researchers found transposons in an array of life-forms, including bacteriophages, bacteria, plants, worms, fruit flies, mosquitos, mice, and humans.
They were nicknamed ‘jumping genes’
Transposons influence the effects of genes by turning “on” or “off” their expression using a variety of epigenetic mechanisms.
They are thus rightly called the tools of evolution, for their ability to rearrange the genome and introduce changes.
More than 45% of the human genome consists of transposable elements.
Just as they create diversity, they also create mutations in genes and lead to diseases.
However, most of the transposons have themselves inherited mutations and have become inactive, and thus can’t move around within the gnome
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