Mechanism of CRISPER/Cas9-Mediated Genome Editing: Scope and Opportunities

CRISPR/Cas9 is a technology used for editing genome. Discovered as an adaptive immune system of prokaryotes, it is taking over other genome editing methods like TALENs (transcription activator-like effector nucleases) and ZFNs (zinc finger nucleases). It is being used for the alteration of inherited information in plants and animals widely. Though it has been extensively used by scientists in plants, its large-scale use is restricted. New discoveries like anti-CRISPR and epigenome editing using CRISPR have drawn significant attention of researchers because they seem promising to provide a regulatory switch to this technique. Keeping in view the broader and efficient applications of this technology for genome editing, this chapter focuses to summarize the evolution, types and functions of CRISPR/Cas9 systems. Comparison among the existing site-specific nucleases is discussed along with the discussion of scope for improvement in the use of this technology.