New Gene Editing Cas-CLOVER Adds an Alternative to CRISPR/Cas9

The use of CRISPR/Cas9, a naturally occurring protein to re-engineer our DNA has revolutionized the treatment of genetic defects. The protein can snip out bad genes and replace them with healthy ones to provide a permanent cure. The most recent success is in using it to treat sickle cell anemia.

Is CRISPR/Cas9 the only gene-editing protein in today’s genetic toolbox? Since its release, researchers have found others to slice and dice our genes and those of other animals and plants.

CRISPR/Cas12 is another protein that appears to be effective in re-engineering immune response cells. CRISPR/CasX is another that is smaller. It is a protein derived from a bacteria not found in humans and is easier to use than Cas9 or 12. Geneticists believe small is good for therapeutic applications, making the protein more manageable as a generalized gene-editing tool.

Genetic-Edited Plants and the GMO Controversy

Besides curing human diseases, gene editing represents a revolutionary technology for agriculture. Unfortunately, many see gene-editing as voodoo and the result has led to the rise in opposition to anything genetically modified and foods getting labelled as GMO. The European Union bloc of countries has regulated a ban on GMO food imports.

This anti-GMO perception is fuelled largely by what is perceived as the unnatural mixing of genetic materials from one species to another. In nature, particularly in plants, however, this happens regularly when soil bacteria enter root systems and the DNA gets copied and transferred from the former to the latter. No protest signs go up, nor are any bans enacted to deal with the pesky, genetic-interfering bacteria.

Climate change is taking it out on plants and the animals who rely on them for food. With global warming altering precipitation, causing droughts, floods, extreme heat and cold, and seawater coastal inundations, farmers are facing new challenges and nations are experiencing growing food supply insecurity. Gene editing and GMOs could be the solution.

Introducing Cas-CLOVER

A new gene editing technology called Cas-CLOVER was discovered a few years ago by Hera BioLabs. Cas-CLOVER uses a different protein than CRISPR’s suite of tools. It is a nuclease protein called Clo51. Nucleases play a crucial role in various biological processes, including DNA replication, transcription, translation, DNA repair, and gene regulation.

In studies, Cas-CLOVER has proven to be more precise than Cas9 with less likelihood of cut-and-replace errors leading to off-target mutations. It is functionally similar to CRISPR gene-editing tools and demonstrates comparable efficiencies to Cas9 for targeting and replacing defective genes. However, it may prove to be a more focused and specific gene-editing tool based on some recent studies.

One of those studies appeared in the September 2023 issue of Plant Biotechnology Journal, describing how Cas-CLOVER was used to alter the banana genome. Albino banana shoots were generated from embryogenic cell suspensions. Instead of CRISPR/Cas9, Cas-CLOVER created the genome deletions with greater efficiency and fewer errors than the former. The study concluded that Cas-CLOVER had the potential to make edits in the genome of crops without causing off-target mutations and damage to the remaining DNA. The researchers were impressed with its efficiencies over CRISPR/Cas9.

Genetic-editing natural tools cannot come soon enough considering the agricultural challenges the planet faces from rising global temperatures and their impact on growing food. At the same time, Cas-CLOVER should prove equally useful as a new member of the CRISPR/Cas9 toolkit, revolutionizing how we tackle genetic-caused diseases.