Biotech Updates

Simple Method for Rapid Screening of CRISPR-Cas9-Induced Mutants

April 24, 2019

The clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats-CRISPR-associated protein 9 (CRISPR-Cas9) system is considered as a technological revolution in targeted mutagenesis. However, a large amount of time and cost is needed to screen for the CRISPR-Cas9 induced mutants from a usual large number of initial samples. Thus, Chun Wang and Kejian Wang from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences presented a cost-effective and sensitive screening technique for identifying mutants based on conventional polymerase chain reaction (PCR). They called this new technique as annealing at critical temperature PCR (ACT-PCR).

ACT-PCR needs only one PCR step and then execution of agarose gel electrophoresis. Because of its simplicity, ACT-PCR is suitable for rapid, large-scale screening of CRISPR-Cas9-induced mutants.

Read more description about ACT-PCR in Plant Genome Editing with CRISPR Systems.