crispr cass 9 is a novel molecular tool modified to allow precise gene editing crispr often referred to as the gene scissor can cause targeted double strand breaks in a specific sequence of the genome what are the main components of crispr cas9 first there is the cas9 protein which can unwind the dna and has also two domains with a nuclear ace activity hence it can cleave the dna double strand the second component is made up by rna the tracer rna which is bound to the cas9 protein and the crispr rna which is specifically designed to hybridize
with the region of interest are covalently fused together and this is called guide rna the crispr cast complex searches for the sequence of interest until the guide rna hybridizes with the dna when there is a pam sequence downstream of the target region the nucleus domains become active and create cuts that results in a double strand break which is repaired in an error-prone manner causing mutations and most likely also the gene knockout
