The gene editing tool CRISPR is now being used to generate a range of traits in a variety of farmed aquatic species – including salmonids, crustaceans and carp – but there is still a way to go before it is likely to be financially and regulatorily viable in commercial aquaculture.
What is CRISPR? Where did it come from and how does it work?
CRISPR is a modern, high-tech method of editing genes, but it’s based on a simple natural defence system found in many bacteria. Like higher organisms, bacteria also have to cope with a number of viruses and plasmids that can invade and take over their cells. The bacteria maintain a sort of genetic library within their DNA, containing key bits of gene sequences from past encounters with pathogens they might normally have to contend with. CRISPR refers to Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, which is basically what the bacterial libraries use to catalogue various viral and plasmid threats…
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