Cre-Controlled CRISPR: Conditional gene inactivation just got easier

The ability to turn a gene off only in a specific cell type is essential to modern life science. Thanks to the Cre-Controlled CRISPR it has just became simpler. The new method developed by researchers from the Center for Regenerative Therapies Dresden (CRTD) at TU Dresden with support from the DRESDEN-concept Genome Center (DCGC) offers a fast and easy approach for conditional gene inactivation.

One of the systems used for conditional gene inactivation is Cre/lox. The Cre/lox system relies on an enzyme, known as Cre recombinase, and special sequences, known as lox. The lox sequences are inserted into the genome around the gene of interest. Cre recognizes the lox sequences and removes the gene sandwiched between them.

"In Cre-Controlled CRISPR we are taking advantage of the tissue-specific expression of Cre and the ease of gene editing of CRISPR/Cas9," says Dr. Hans. "By merging the two methods, we created a version of CRISPR/Cas9 that is switched on by a Cre recombinase. Using our method, researchers can still take advantage of vast libraries of already established animal lines that express Cre in different tissues. But Cre-Controlled CRISPR takes away the laborious genome editing because it removes the necessity to flank a gene with lox sequences.