Large-scale multiplexed mosaic CRISPR perturbation in the whole organism

Fast-tracking efforts to determine gene function

27 December 2022

A system for editing genes that enables more than 100 genes to be modified at a time in a mouse promises to greatly accelerate efforts to catalogue the roles of genes.

In 2003, the Human Genome Project succeeded in mapping and sequencing all the genes in the human genome. However, the roles of about 20,000 genes that encode for proteins in mammals are still unknown two decades later.

The usual way to determine gene function is to knock out genes one at a time and see what effect it has on mice. But this is slow and masks what occurs inside cells.

Now, a team led by researchers from ShanghaiTech University in China has devised a method that overcomes both these problems.

Their technique allows at least 100 genes to be edited in parallel — but only one per cell. The team demonstrated their technique by using to perturb 90 genes in 39 tissue types.

Supported content

References

1. Cell 185, 3008–3024 (2022). doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2022.06.039