A systematic study of the interactions between nucleases and oligonucleotide-coated gold nanoparticles (spherical nucleic acids, SNAs) demonstrates that modular units SNAs can be leveraged to either accelerate or suppress nuclease kinetics.

Rice blast, caused by the fungus Pyricularia oryzae L., is considered one of main threats to world rice production. The development resistant cultivars best and sustainable control alternatives. Plant breeding efforts have been accelerated genetic mapping (linkage associative) marker assisted selection. On other hand, genomic editing techniques, such as meganucleases (MNs), Zinc-finger nuclease...

Genome editing based on sequence-specific designer nucleases, also known as programmable nucleases, seeks to modify in a targeted and precise manner the genetic information content of living cells. Delivering into cells designer nucleases alone or together with donor DNA templates, which serve as surrogate homologous recombination (HR) substrates, can result in gene knockouts or gene knock-ins,...

RNA interference (RNAi) approaches have been applied as a biotechnological tool for controlling plant insect pests via selective gene down regulation. However, the inefficiency of RNAi mechanism in insects is associated with several barriers, including dsRNA delivery and uptake by the cell, dsRNA interaction with the cellular membrane receptor and dsRNA exposure to insect gut nucleases during f...

Programmable nucleases, such as zinc finger nucleases (ZFNs), transcription activator like effector nucleases (TALENs), and clustered regularly interspersed short palindromic repeats associated protein-9 (CRISPR-Cas9), hold tremendous potential for applications in the clinical setting to treat genetic diseases or prevent infectious diseases. However, because the accuracy of DNA recognition by t...

Genome editing in human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) enables the generation of reporter lines and knockout cell lines. Zinc finger nucleases, transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs), and CRISPR/Cas9 technology have recently increased the efficiency of proper gene editing by creating double strand breaks (DSB) at defined sequences in the human genome. These systems typically u...

Engineered nucleases such as zinc finger nucleases (ZFN) and transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALEN) are one of the most promising tools for modifying genomes. These site-specific enzymes cause double-strand breaks that allow gene disruption or gene insertion, thereby facilitating genetic manipulation. The major problem associated with this approach is the labor-intensive proced...