For the first time, the innovative CRISPR gene editing method has been used on squid, marking a milestone in the scientific study of these creatures – and opening up many new areas of potential research.
CRISPR enables very precise, speedy, and low-cost DNA edits. Put simple, the ingenious molecular workings of the method are often described as something that allows us to ‘cut’ and ‘paste’ genes; in humans it promises to give us a way of tackling disease and killing superbugs at the genetic level.
In this case CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing was used on Doryteuthis pealeii (the longfin inshore squid) to disable a pigmentation gene, turning off the pigmentation usually found in the squid eye and inside specialised skin cells called chromatophores.
“This is a critical first step toward the ability to knock out – and knock in – genes in cephalopods to address a host of biological questions,” says marine biologist Joshua Rosenthal, from the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) at the University of Chicago.
Hellbound and Down 