CRISPR-Cas9 Gene Manipulation in the Foods We Eat 1

CRISPR-Cas9 Gene Manipulation in the Foods We Eat

Cameron R. Lindsay

ENC 2135

Prof. Eleanor Boudreau

Due Date

Introduction
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I love oranges. There is a running joke at my home that whenever someone buys oranges,

they need to hide it from me, or I will finish them. A few years ago I learned about the greening

citrus disease, and I was devastated.Within the last ten years Floridas citrus industry has been

dealing with an issue called Huanglongbing (HLB), or citrus greening disease. Oranges in

Florida are exposed to bacteria of the Candidatus Liberibacter group, an Asian strain (Candidatus

Liberibacter asiaticus), an African strain (Candidatus Liberibacter africanus) and a strain found

only in Brazil (Candidatus Liberibacter americanus). These three species of bacteria can be

transmitted by two species of citrus psyllids: Asian citrus psyllid, and African citrus psyllid. The

Asian citrus psyllid relies on the leaves on citrus trees to reproduce, and lay its eggs, so Florida

seems pretty lit for these critters.

A new possible solution has been created for this epidemic. Today scientist have been

able to use a specific system called CRISPR-Cas9 (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short

Palindromic Repeats with protein-9 nuclease) to manipulate genomes of organisms. CRISPR is a

DNA sequence found in bacterium used to detect and eradicate viruses. Cas proteins detect, and

chemically slice off unhealthy strands of DNA sequences..CRISPR/Cas systems are seen as an

immune system for prokaryotic cells. Scientists have created this technology to manipulate

genomes of most living organisms. The enzyme called Cas9 is able to cut parts of a double-

stranded DNA sequence, where single-stranded pieces of gRNa (guide RNA) bind to

complementary DNA strands to manipulate the sequence. The molecule is able add, take away,

or alter DNA sequences within an organism's genome. It is said to be a faster, cheaper, and more

accurate way to alter an organism's genome. (What is CRISPR-Cas9)

I first heard about CRISPR- Cas9 when my sister did a project on its use for designing

babies a few years back. Scientists are able to manipulate the embryo of a human into almost
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anything. To me it sounded like something from Bioshock, and manipulating human baby

embryos to fit ones style seems ethically questionable. I felt focusing on using the gene editing

method on the foods we eat is a bit less heavy of a topic.

HLB has already drastically affected the citrus industry in Florida. According to the US

Department of Agriculture, HLB is responsible for a 75 percent decline in floridas nine billion

dollar citrus industry. Between the USDA and the NIFA, the National Institute of Food and

Agriculture, 13..6 million dollars has already been invested into finding a solution for the

greening of oranges. C

How is CRISPR-Cas9 different from GMOs? Is this BioShock Crap?

https://www.usda.gov/media/press-releases/2017/01/19/usda-invests-136-million-citrus-

greening-research

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40003-016-0204-z

Methods

I will interview people. To contact people I will not only email them, I will also take

advantage of social media, and use sites like Facebook and Twitter to contact different people.

So far, I have contacted the creators of the Fruit & Spice Park, the National Institute of Food and

Agriculture, and the United States Department of Agriculture. I plan to ask questions on the

cause of HLB, symptoms of HLB, and ways to avoid HLB. I also plan to ask questions on how

the gene editing process works, and How CRISPR-Cas9 was discovered, and how it evolved

over time. I find that most people who work with CRISPR-Cas9 work with University Research

Institutes. The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, and EMBL European Bioinformatics Institute

the creators of Your Genome will hopefully give me that information. I also am curious to find
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out if Florida State is working on anything that has to do with HLB. In the University of Florida

Dr. Nian Wang is researching using CRISPR-Cas9 to make oranges more resistant to the citrus

greening disease, so I plan to contact him too. He is the person who will connect both sides of

my research.

Results

This is what I sent to multiple people:

Hello, My name is Cameron R. Lindsay. I am sophomore undergraduate student

attending Florida State University. I am conducting a semester long project pertaining to a field

of my interest, and I have decided to focus on gene editing the foods people eat using CRISPR-

Cas9. I am especially curious about the process of gene editing in citrus fruit affected by HLB

(Huanglongbing). I was wondering if it is possible to ask a few questions pertaining to this topic,

and is there anyone I am able to contact for more information on this subject? Thank You.

No one has answered me.

Conclusion

I have learned that this field of research is extremely hard and annoying. I would describe the

process of gene manipulation similar to something hard and annoying . Even with all this

research, scientist still are unsure if this will work, and if it does work, there is no way to find the

long term effects of gene manipulation until decades later. There are many implications that

prevent further research in gene manipulation as well. These stronger organisms will affect the

balance of the environment, but it is unknown if that is for better, or for worse.

All the research that is don is relatively new, so

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