NEWSLETTER
Heat-Protecting Gene in Corals & Human Cells Get an Upgrade…from Tardigrades
This Week in Synthetic Biology (Issue #15)
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Heating Breakthrough in Corals
As the earth heats, and the Great Barrier Reef melts away, scientists are scrambling for deeper insights into heat-tolerance in coral — specifically, which genes help corals cope with higher temperatures, and could gene editing be used to create heat-resistant variants?
A gene in fertilized coral eggs (Acropora millepora), called Heat Shock Transcription Factor 1 (HSF1), was mutated with CRISPR/Cas9. After one injection of the CRISPR/Cas9 components, 90% of the eggs carried mutations in that gene, causing drastic changes in how well the coral could handle heat later on. “The mutant larvae survived well at 27 °C but died rapidly at 34 °C,” the authors wrote. The higher temperature did not, however, cause any damage to normal, un-edited corals. The authors conclude, therefore, that HSF1 “plays an important protective role” in these stunning creatures. This study was published in PNAS. Link
