Targeted nucleotide editing using hybrid prokaryotic and vertebrate adaptive immune systems

INTRODUCTION To combat invading pathogens, cells develop an adaptive immune response by changing their own genetic information. In vertebrates, the generation of genetic variation (somatic hypermutation) is an essential process for diversification and affinity maturation of antibodies that function to detect and sequester various foreign biomolecules. The activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID) carries out hypermutation by modifying deoxycytidine bases in the variable region of the immunoglobulin locus that produces antibody. AID-generated deoxyuridine in DNA is mutagenic as it can be miss-recognized as deoxythymine, resulting in C to T mutations. CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic…

• MO
  Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
• MO
  Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry
• JS
  Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

  Awards: 16K14654, 26119710