CRISPR bleached lizards
With the help of genome editing technology, lizards were made albinos
Scientists from the University of Georgia have applied the CRISPR-Cas 9 genome editing technology to reptiles for the first time. As a result, they managed to turn the offspring of experimental lizards into albinos.
The use of the CRISPR-Cas 9 method for genome editing in lizard and snake embryos faces some difficulties. Usually, the introduction of a genetic construct is performed shortly after fertilization of the egg, so that all cells of the new organism inherit the modified genome. But the females of a number of reptiles after mating store a stock of sperm in their oviducts for a long time, so it is very difficult to find the moment of fertilization. In addition, the fertilized egg is covered with a shell, and it becomes difficult to make an injection without damaging the embryo.
In the new experiment, the authors circumvented this difficulty by introducing the CRISPR-Cas 9 complex into the still unfertilized eggs located in the ovaries of female lizards of the brown Anolis species (Anolis sagrei). The gene of tyrosinase, an enzyme that affects the color of a lizard, was edited. A total of 146 eggs were injected from 21 lizards. As a result, out of the lizards that were born, four turned out to be not brown, but white (pink shade – because of the blood shining through the skin).
For such an effect, it is necessary that the mutation be present not only in the maternal, but also in the paternal genes. As scientists suggest, the CRISPR-Cas 9 system successfully edited genes in lizard eggs, but in most cases there was a failure in editing genes received after fertilization.
The authors of the work published on the preprints website bioRxiv.org they believe that they have found a promising way and further work on improving the method will allow editing the genomes of other species of lizards and snakes.
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