Researchers from the Synthetic Microbiology Center Marburg in Germany presented a versatile scarless and marker-free genome editing system in their latest publication in Nature Communications. CRISPR SWAPnDROP can perform indels consecutively or in parallel and transfer chromosomal regions between species of independent size and with high-editing efficiencies.

The researchers used an approach to co-selection that does not rely on chromosomal insertions or other persistent scars via its multicolor co-selection system. They were also able to increase editing efficiencies and monitor the assembly process of the modular CRISPR SWAPnDROP system.

The study detailed how CRISPR SWAPnDROP was able to match the current CRISPR-Cas9-based editing systems with high editing efficiency of above 90% for Escherichia coli while integrating desirable features of several systems with high flexibility. The researchers successfully demonstrated the excision, transfer, and integration of large chromosomal regions between E. coli, Vibrio natriegens, and Dickeya dadantii bacteria without size-limiting intermediate DNA extraction. The technique provides common genome editing approaches comprising scarless, marker-free, iterative, and parallel insertions and deletions. Its multi-color scarless co-selection system greatly improves editing efficiency and provides visual quality controls during the assembly and editing process.

Learn more about CRISPR SWAPnDROP in Nature Communications.