303 – Activating Suites of Plant Genes with Cas9

Tweet



The role of Cas9 as an editing/deletion nuclease has been well established, but can it be used to turn genes on?   Dr. Yiping Qi of the University of Maryland has developed a system where Cas9’s specificity is used to recruit gene expression activation factors to plant promoters.  The approach allows activation of sets of genes associated with disease resistance or other useful plant traits.