Researchers have successfully developed and demonstrated a new method using CRISPR/Cas9 genome-editing technology to study how cells repair cell damage. damaged DNA in space.
Whether through normal biological or environmental processes, damage to an organism's DNA can occur. In space, space radiation, a constant stream of high-energy particles that travel through the interstellar medium at nearly the speed of light, poses the greatest danger to astronauts. This radiation emits enough energy to modify or break DNA molecules , which promotes the risk of cancers, among other conditions.
On Earth, we know that cells can develop several strategies (homologous recombination and non-homologous end joining) to repair this damaged DNA. But what about in space? Technological and security hurdles have so far limited research on the issue. However, researchers have recently developed an experiment to evaluate these repair mechanisms on board the ISS .
This technique is based on CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing technology, which has become the figurehead of medical advances in recent years. It is a protein of bacterial origin capable of "cutting" DNA at specific sequences. The technique can be used in genetic engineering to easily and quickly modify the genome of animal and plant cells.
Here, Genes in Space researchers therefore used CRISPR to create precise damage to DNA strands so that DNA repair mechanisms could then be observed more detail in microgravity. The method focuses on a particularly harmful type of DNA damage known as a double-strand break may be a source of genetic instability.
Researchers have successfully demonstrated the viability of this new method in yeast cells.
This is the first time an edit of the CRISPR/Cas9 genome is successfully carried out in space.
Researchers agree that while this is an important step in understanding genetic repair in the space environment, CRISPR-induced double-strand breaks may differ from those induced by radiation . So they hope to refine this process so that they can mimic this more complex damage as much as possible. This work will thus be able to shed more light on the effects of long-term space travel on the human body.
