taco cat BLOOP a car, a man, a maraca BLOOP aibohphobia BLOOP

CRISPR stands for “clustered regularly-interspaced short palindromic repeats.” They’re segments of DNA containing short repetitions of base sequences that are palindromic, and each repetition is followed by short segments of spacer DNA (BLOOP).

When bacteria weren’t busy dying of viruses, they incorporated the DNA from viruses into their own genome, a technique otherwise known as acquired immunity (kinda like how vaccines work on us except… with DNA instead of antibodies). They can even scavenge DNA from their environment, so that’d be like, if you had a dog you’d scavenge their DNA and incorporate it into yours i.e. growing a tail or having super hearing and severe but enthusiastic ADHA. The CRISPR system was a method of prokaryotic immune systems that gathers genetic elements and provides a form of acquired immunity. CRISPR spacers recognize and cut these exogenous genetic elements in a manner like RNA interference and are found in approximately 90% of sequenced single-celled microorganisms and 40% of sequenced bacteria.

So all these bacteria and single-celled idiots can cut into a cell’s genome at any desired location and allow existing genes to be removed and/or add new ones.

There’s only one logical step next in using the CRISPR/Cas9 system for genome editing…

I WANT A PET THAT’S CONSTANTLY ON FIRE

The CRISPR/Cas9 system has been used to create monkeys with targeted mutations to prevent HIV infection in human cells (although one study showed that the HIV virus developed mutations at the sights Cas9 targeted, rendering the method ineffective at eliminating the virus completely). There was one study where CRISPR was used to cut 5 to 62 genes at once in a pig. They successfully eliminated the Porcine Endogenous Retrovirus infection from the pig to human cells in culture. And the best part? The CRISPR/Cas9 system is cheap costing roughly $75 per snip.