Efficient fly CRISPR with limited risk? Preprint from Port and colleagues compares sgRNA transgenic and MCR approaches

Interested to efficiently generate knockout flies without the potential risks presented by the mutagenic chain reaction (MCR) approach? Check out a new pre-print from Port et al.

Port, Muschalik and Bullock (preprint) CRISPR with independent transgenes is a safe and robust alternative to autonomous gene drives in basic research.

From the abstract:  "... Here, we systematically evaluate available CRISPR/Cas reagents and experimental designs in Drosophila. Our findings allow evidence-based choices of Cas9 sources and strategies for generating knock-in alleles. We perform gene editing at a large number of target sites using a highly active Cas9 line and a collection of transgenic gRNA strains. The vast majority of target sites can be mutated with remarkable efficiency using these tools. We contrast our method to recently developed autonomous gene drive technology for genome engineering (Gantz & Bier, 2015) and conclude that optimised CRISPR with independent transgenes is as efficient, more versatile and does not represent a biosafety risk."