https://www.jst.go.jp/pr/announce/20250321/pdf/20250321.pdf
A team at Kyushu University has developed a new genome editing technology called BITREx that highly expands structures in which the same gene is repeated tandemly (tandem gene arrays) by destroying the replication forks, the site of DNA replication.
When the potential of BITREx was examined using budding yeast as a model, they were able to extend a CUP1 array, which consists of 14 repeat units of 2,000 base pairs, to a number of repeats of approximately 500, with a total length of approximately 1 million base pairs. They also found that by designing an artificial DNA fragment and using it in combination with BITREx, a tandem gene array can be formed and extended even from a single copy gene. They also succeeded in extending a tandem gene array using BITREx in human cultured cells.
BITREx is expected to have a wide range of applications in experimental evolution, useful substance production, gene therapy, and more.
