The key enzyme Cas3 acts as a molecular shredder that can quickly and accurately remove longer pieces of DNA. “Cas3 is like Cas9 with a motor: after it finds its specific DNA target, it spins on DNA and chews it up like a Pac-Man,” says researcher Joseph Bondy-Denomy at the website Phys.org.
The ability to remove or replace long stretches of DNA gives scientists the ability to efficiently determine the importance of genomic regions that have DNA sequences whose functions are still undefined.
Image: Pixabay / CC0 Public Domain
