Big Meeting on CRISPR (Powerful New Genetic Modification Technology)

[BillT]

CRISPR is a new genetic technology which has made modifying the genome or organisms cheap and easy. (I have thought of using it on fish at home).
Because it is so easy to use and so efficient, it has great possibilities for treating disease, but also comes with potential problems and ethical considerations.

These are discussed in this article:
http://news.sciencemag.org/scientific-community/2015/12/inside-summit-human-gene-editing-reporter-s-notebook?utm_campaign=email-news-latest&et_rid=33537079&et_cid=138606

[Mugwump]

Thanks, Bill....
   I've read up on this previously and I'm still not quite sure if it should become an accepted option for parents, etc. It's a can of worms, that once opened, smacks of the possibilities of misuse. From the desires of the very rich, or sinister fanatics, how could this technology be controlled? Those that desire perfection and/or selection of man creates a scenario of potential abuse.
   The good out weighs the bad tho, but for how long can that scale be tilted in such a way? It could get ugly quickly, and worst of all permanently.     

[BillT]

Crispr updates:

Crispr use and how it might be regulated:
http://news.sciencemag.org/scientific-community/2015/12/nas-panel-tackles-and-tackled-genome-editing-animals?utm_campaign=email-news-latest&et_rid=33537079&et_cid=168675


Good explanation of how Crispr how gene drives work:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/22/science/gene-drives-offer-new-hope-against-diseases-and-crop-pests.html?emc=edit_th_20151222&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=38810697

[Mugwump]

..I found the 'regulated' article interesting.........the comments too.....

thanks..

[BillT]

I am finding the gene drive stuff pretty interesting these days.

Although working through a diverse collection of different techniques, they all work by changing the ratios of progeny inheriting the drive gene and other genes that are linked to it (close on the same chromosome).
This basically distorts the Mendelian ratios. Either the not gene carrying chromosome is messed up in some way and no longer works (resulting in a dead or infertile progeny), or the driven gene is put on the other chromosome in some way and inherited when it normally would not be. Thus the ratios of the different genetic types produced in a cross is different from Mendelian ratios which are based on how unaltered chromosomes sort out to make sperm and eggs.


There is a related example of this kind of inheritance in nature: Wolbachia:Possible the most common reproductive parasite in the world.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolbachia

This is an intracellular bacterial parasite of insects that is transmitted during breeding. It is transmitted through eggs (larger than sperm cells) similar to how mitochondria are inherited (mitochondria are thought of as symbionts that evolved from bacteria that invaded the stem eukaryotic cell (non-bacterial cells with a nucleus). They affect the sex ratios and the ability of particular infected and uninfected animals to reproduce.