How jumping genes and RNA bridges promise to shake up biomedicine

Sub: Science and tech

Sec: Health

Context:

On June 26, Nature Published a paper describing a new RNA-guided gene editing system.

What are jumping genes:

Transposable elements (TEs), also known as “jumping genes,” are DNA sequences that move from one location on the genome to another.
They were discovered by Barbara McClintock who received her Nobel Prize in 1983.
There are also two classes of jumping genes, called class I transposons and class II transposons.
Class I transposons are also called retrotransposons because when they undergo the process of replication, they first copy their DNA into RNA.
Class II TEs or DNA transposons encode the protein transposase, which they require for insertion and excision, and some of these TEs also encode other proteins.

How jumping genes are Boon to Synthetic biology?

Researchers from the University of Tokyo described the structural and molecular mechanisms of genome modification guided by bridge RNA.
They usedcryo-electron microscopy to study the IS110 transposons and found that it works as a dimer — a complex compound formed by bonding two copies of a simpler compound.
One copy binds to the target DNA and the other binds to the donor DNA, bridged by the bridge RNA.
DNA recombination mediated by bridge RNA makes a clean cut, making the edit specific and tidy.
It can facilitate the addition, deletion or inversion of DNA sequences of virtually any length which are currently beyond the reach of any of the editing tools we have.
It can be used to manage, or even treat, a wide variety of genetic diseases and a functional copy of a gene can be replaced in a given genomic location.