Featured
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Letter |
Synthetic two-way communication between mammalian cells
Bacchus et al. describe the first experiments in mammalian cells that distribute complex behavior across several types of engineered cells, thereby mimicking natural multicellular systems.
- William Bacchus
- , Moritz Lang
- & Martin Fussenegger
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Correspondence |
Successful suppression of a field mosquito population by sustained release of engineered male mosquitoes
- Angela F Harris
- , Andrew R McKemey
- & Luke Alphey
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News & Views |
RNA-mediated programmable DNA cleavage
Genome engineering has a new tool—endonucleases involved in bacterial adaptive immunity that can be reprogrammed with customizable small, noncoding RNAs.
- Rodolphe Barrangou
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Letter |
Engineering phosphorus metabolism in plants to produce a dual fertilization and weed control system
López-Arredondo and Herrera-Estrella produce transgenic plants that express a bacterial phosphite-oxidoreductase gene to enable use of phosphite as a sole phosphorus source. This technology could reduce the amount of non-renewable phosphorus used as fertilizer and control weeds.
- Damar Lizbeth López-Arredondo
- & Luis Herrera-Estrella
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Bioentrepreneur |
It's the problem, stupid!
A serial entrepreneur learns that the world's most exciting, groundbreaking technology is pointless if it is unable to address an urgent and relevant need.
- Tillman Gerngross
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News & Views |
The tomato genome fleshed out
Sequencing of the tomato genome reveals key events in the evolution of fruit size, texture, flavor and nutritional quality.
- Todd P Michael
- & Rob Alba
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Correspondence |
TAL effector RVD specificities and efficiencies
- Jana Streubel
- , Christina Blücher
- & Jens Boch
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Review Article |
Modeling and predicting clinical efficacy for drugs targeting the tumor milieu
- Mallika Singh
- & Napoleone Ferrara
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Correspondence |
High-efficiency TALEN-based gene editing produces disease-resistant rice
- Ting Li
- , Bo Liu
- & Bing Yang
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News & Views |
Direct cloning of large genomic sequences
The discovery of an efficient mechanism of homologous recombination between two linear DNA substrates provides a new method for direct cloning.
- Ryan E Cobb
- & Huimin Zhao
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Article |
Full-length RecE enhances linear-linear homologous recombination and facilitates direct cloning for bioprospecting
Functional genomics requires facile methods to recover sequences of interest. Fu et al. show that the phage proteins RecE and RecT mediate recombination between linear DNA fragments and can facilitate natural product discovery.
- Jun Fu
- , Xiaoying Bian
- & Youming Zhang
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Resource |
FLASH assembly of TALENs for high-throughput genome editing
Transcription activator–like effector nucleases (TALENs) enable genetic modification at specific sites in a genome. Reyon et al. present a method for high-throughput generation of TALENs, facilitating large-scale genome engineering.
- Deepak Reyon
- , Shengdar Q Tsai
- & J Keith Joung
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Letter |
Design of a dynamic sensor-regulator system for production of chemicals and fuels derived from fatty acids
Expressing heterologous pathways in cells can create detrimental metabolic imbalances. Zhang et al. increase the yield of a biofuel by engineering regulators in Escherichia coli that sense and adjust pathway expression based on the presence of key intermediate metabolites.
- Fuzhong Zhang
- , James M Carothers
- & Jay D Keasling
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Letter |
Wheat grain yield on saline soils is improved by an ancestral Na+ transporter gene
Salinization of cultivated land and the need to increase agricultural productivity make the development of salt-resistant crops imperative. Field trials show that a durum wheat containing a sodium transporter derived from an ancestral wheat relative produces substantially more grain than a commercial durum wheat lacking this transporter on saline soil.
- Rana Munns
- , Richard A James
- & Matthew Gilliham
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News & Views |
Tracing the genesis of human embryonic stem cells
When human blastocysts are cultured in vitro to derive embryonic stem cells, they undergo profound molecular changes that alter their identity.
- Ariel Pribluda
- & Jacob H Hanna
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News Feature |
Tiptoeing around transgenics
New techniques for manipulating plant genomes are yielding plants touted as nontransgenic. Will that relieve regulatory burden? Emily Waltz investigates.
- Emily Waltz
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Correspondence |
European discussion forum on transgenic tree biosafety
- Matthias Fladung
- , Illimar Altosaar
- & Cristina Vettori
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Correspondence |
Factors influencing agbiotech adoption and development in sub-Saharan Africa
- Obidimma C Ezezika
- , Abdallah S Daar
- & Peter A Singer
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News & Views |
Parallel genome universes
A new computational approach gives us the best chance at understanding how genomes are arranged in three-dimensional space and what that may mean for their function.
- Tom Misteli
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News & Views |
Road test for genetically modified mosquitoes
Results from the first open-field trial of transgenic mosquitoes bode well for large-scale releases to fight infectious diseases.
- Todd Shelly
- & Don McInnis
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Letter |
Field performance of engineered male mosquitoes
Mass-release of sterile male mosquitoes is a promising option for controlling dengue and malaria, but it has never been shown that lab-raised transgenic males can compete effectively with their wild counterparts outside laboratory conditions. Promising results from a restricted field trail now suggest the feasibility of extending the approach for large-scale mosquito-control programs.
- Angela F Harris
- , Derric Nimmo
- & Luke Alphey
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News & Views |
RNA lights up
A new method to genetically tag RNA for fluorescence imaging in live cells simplifies imaging of cellular RNAs.
- John S Mattick
- & Michael B Clark
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Letter |
Efficacy of genetically modified Bt toxins against insects with different genetic mechanisms of resistance
The benefits of crops that produce insecticidal toxins from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) are threatened by the emergence of insect resistance. Working with five major crop pests, Tabashnik et al. show that previously described variant Bt toxins kill pests rendered resistant to native Bt toxins by multiple mechanisms.
- Bruce E Tabashnik
- , Fangneng Huang
- & Mario Soberón
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Correspondence |
Targeted gene disruption in somatic zebrafish cells using engineered TALENs
- Jeffry D Sander
- , Lindsay Cade
- & Jing-Ruey J Yeh
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Correspondence |
Knockout rats generated by embryo microinjection of TALENs
- Laurent Tesson
- , Claire Usal
- & Gregory J Cost
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News & Views |
An infrared fluorescent protein for deeper imaging
A newly engineered infrared fluorescent protein will allow microscopists to peer more deeply into living animals.
- Jérôme Lecoq
- & Mark J Schnitzer
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Commentary |
Transgenic salmon: a final leap to the grocery shelf?
Despite being caught up in regulatory proceedings for 15 years or more, AquAdvantage salmon, the first animal genetically engineered (GE) for food purposes, continues to raise concerns. Are any of these concerns scientifically justified?
- Alison L Van Eenennaam
- & William M Muir
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Brief Communication |
Genetic engineering of human pluripotent cells using TALE nucleases
Transcription activator–like effector nucleases (TALENs) are a new technology for modifying the genome at specific loci of interest. Hockemeyer et al. now demonstrate the utility of TALENs for gene targeting in human pluripotent stem cells.
- Dirk Hockemeyer
- , Haoyi Wang
- & Rudolf Jaenisch
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Letter |
Delivery of siRNA to the mouse brain by systemic injection of targeted exosomes
Delivery of therapeutic siRNA to specific tissues is a major challenge. Alvarez-Erviti et al. show that exosomes—small vesicles that are naturally secreted by many animal cells—can be engineered to transport siRNA specifically to the brain in mice.
- Lydia Alvarez-Erviti
- , Yiqi Seow
- & Matthew J A Wood
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Perspective |
Beyond natural antibodies: the power of in vitro display technologies
- Andrew R M Bradbury
- , Sachdev Sidhu
- & John McCafferty
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News Feature |
Natural-born eaters
With information on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico still coming in, more is being learned about the role of indigenous bacteria in cleaning the spill. Meanwhile, efforts are under way to enlist new genomic technologies to improve outcomes. Jeffrey L. Fox reports.
- Jeffrey L. Fox
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News & Views |
Crafting rat genomes with zinc fingers
Expressing zinc-finger nucleases in zygotes enables targeted transgene integration in the mouse and rat genomes.
- Meng Amy Li
- & Allan Bradley
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Letter |
Targeted integration in rat and mouse embryos with zinc-finger nucleases
Cui et al. generate transgenic rats and mice bearing targeted genomic integrations by enhancing the rate of homologous recombination in single-cell embryos with zinc-finger nucleases. The approach avoids the time-consuming backcrossing involved in generating mutant mice with ES cells and should be applicable to species for which ES cells have not been isolated.
- Xiaoxia Cui
- , Diana Ji
- & Edward J Weinstein
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Letter |
Selective chemical labeling reveals the genome-wide distribution of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine
Song et al. present the first method for global analysis of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine, a recently identified epigenetic modification in mammalian cells. They use a bacteriophage-derived enzyme to tag the hydroxymethyl group with an azide-modified glucose residue that can be used for affinity purification and sequencing of modified genomic DNA fragments.
- Chun-Xiao Song
- , Keith E Szulwach
- & Chuan He
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Letter |
Genomic safe harbors permit high β-globin transgene expression in thalassemia induced pluripotent stem cells
If transgenes are to be introduced into the genome for cell therapies, the integration events should permit high transgene expression without altering the expression of endogenous genes. Papapetrou et al. propose five criteria to define such 'safe harbors' in the human genome and demonstrate high A-globin expression from a safe-harbor site in erythroid-lineage cells derived from induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells.
- Eirini P Papapetrou
- , Gabsang Lee
- & Michel Sadelain