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Increasing Ethanol Tolerance in Industrially Important Ethanol Fermenting Organisms
Published in Ayerim Y. Hernández Almanza, Nagamani Balagurusamy, Héctor Ruiz Leza, Cristóbal N. Aguilar, Bioethanol, 2023
Kalyanasundaram Geetha Thanuja, Subburamu Karthikeyan
In the past years, novel genome editing tools like transcription activator-like effector nuclease (TALEN’s), zinc finger nuclease (ZFN) have been used to engineer strains with desirable traits in industrial settings. However, there are only a few studies applying the gene-editing tools for ethanol tolerance. Zhang et al. [58] have demonstrated TALEN assisted multiplex editing (TAME) for improving ethanol tolerance in yeast by multiple genetic perturbations in the genome. Mitsui, Yamada, and Ogino [59] have achieved higher cell viability in low pH and high ethanol concentration in S. cerevisiae using Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-CRISPR associated protein (Cas). The large-scale rearrangement of genomic DNA can be a promising strategy for the improvement of ethanol tolerant strains.
Synthetic Biology: From Gene Circuits to Novel Biological Tools
Published in Tuan Vo-Dinh, Nanotechnology in Biology and Medicine, 2017
Nina G. Argibay, Eric M. Vazquez, Cortney E. Wilson, Travis J.A. Craddock, Robert P. Smith
Two mechanisms for genome editing have come to the forefront, although additional strategies have also been developed (Esvelt and Wang 2013). The first mechanism involves the use of zinc finger nucleases (ZFN) (Urnov et al. 2005) or transcription activator like effector nucleases (TALENS) (Gaj, Gersbach, and Barbas 2013; Joung and Sander 2013). Zinc fingers and transcription activator like effectors recognize and bind to highly specific DNA sequences. These DNA-binding domains are modified to carry the nonspecific nuclease domain of the Fok1 restriction endonuclease (Figure 17.5b). When two ZFNs or TALENS dimerize to adjacent areas on the DNA, the nuclease activity of Fok1 is activated causing the DNA to be cut. The cut DNA can then be repaired by the cell by inserting a user-designed DNA sequence. ZFNs and TALENS have been used in a variety of organisms (Urnov et al. 2010) and have been able to repair DNA associated with disease (Ousterout et al. 2013).
Understanding the Technologies Involved in Gene Therapy
Published in Yashwant V. Pathak, Gene Delivery Systems, 2022
Manish P. Patel, Jayvadan K. Patel, Mukesh Patel, Govind Vyas
Zinc finger nucleases (ZFNs) are custom-designed artificial nucleases that create double-strand breaks at specific sequences, enabling efficient targeted genetic modifications such as corrections, additions, gene knockouts and structural variations. ZFNs were initially developed by Chandrasegaran and colleagues as chimeric restriction enzymes that could induce sequence-specific cleavage at a genomic locus of interest (Jo et al. 2015)
The advances and limitations in biodiesel production: feedstocks, oil extraction methods, production, and environmental life cycle assessment
Published in Green Chemistry Letters and Reviews, 2020
Konstantin Pikula, Alexander Zakharenko, Antonios Stratidakis, Mayya Razgonova, Alexander Nosyrev, Yaroslav Mezhuev, Aristidis Tsatsakis, Kirill Golokhvast
If the species isolated from nature do not suit the industrial requirements, a promising direction is the application of genetic and metabolic engineering to improve the characteristics of oil-producing microorganisms (66). Microalgal modification is mainly focused on lipid and carbohydrate metabolism, improved nutrient use efficiency, hydrogen production, improved photosynthesis efficiency, higher stress tolerance, enhanced cell disintegration, and flocculation (67). Moreover, genetic modification can contribute oil extraction from microalgal biomass by inducing autolysis and product secretory systems (40) The most applied genome editing tools are: zinc-finger nuclease (ZFN), transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALEN), and clustered regularly interspaced palindromic sequences (CRISPR/Cas9) (68). Despite significant advantages, genetically modified species represent a serious environmental and human health risk, including releasing toxic algae strains into the environment, removal of nutrients from the ecosystem reducing the biodiversity of the flora and fauna, changing aquatic ecosystems, and other (66). Although the fourth generation of biodiesel is under the early stage of development, in the future it could overcome the disadvantages of the first three generations and become the most effective replacement of fossil fuel (69).
Gene Editing: A View Through the Prism of Inherited Metabolic Disorders
Published in The New Bioethics, 2018
The ‘technology of purposeful DNA modification’ (Rehmann-Sutter 2018), that is the ability deliberately to make targeted alterations in specific genes within an organism, has been developed to such a sophisticated level that gene editing is now a clinical therapeutic reality. Stem cells extracted from patients affected with severe paediatric neurodegenerative disorders such as metachromatic leukodystrophy have been edited ex vivo using lentiviral systems to insert a correctly functioning copy of the defective gene, and the cells returned to the patients as an autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplant, thereby preventing the progression of the disease (Biffi et al. 2013). More recently in vivo gene editing has been accomplished using zinc finger nuclease technologies (Sharma et al. 2015) to insert a functioning copy of the gene encoding specific lysosomal enzymes directly in to liver cells of patients with lysosomal storage disorders in an attempt to cure their disease, with the first patients treated widely reported in the press.1,2 The development of RNA-guided gene-editing technologies such as CRISPR/Cas93 or zinc finger nucleases means that it is now possible to edit single genes within an organism, including an embryo.