Xiaofang Lin

Tropical Animal Medicine Center, Hainan Institute of Tropical Agricultural Resources, Sanya, 572024, Hainan, China
Author    Correspondence author
Genomics and Applied Biology, 2024, Vol. 15, No. 5   doi: 10.5376/gab.2024.15.0028
Received: 01 Sep., 2024    Accepted: 08 Oct., 2024    Published: 22 Oct., 2024

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Lin X.F., 2024, Harnessing gene editing tools to study ASFV pathogenesis, Genomics and Applied Biology, 15(5): 264-275 (doi: 10.5376/gab.2024.15.0028)

The study utilizes advanced gene editing tools, specifically the CRISPR/Cas9 system, to investigate the pathogenesis of African Swine Fever Virus (ASFV) by creating recombinant virus strains with targeted gene deletions. The study successfully demonstrated the application of CRISPR/Cas9 to delete key immune response modulation genes (A238L, EP402R, and 9GL) in ASFV. The reconstituted virus exhibited similar replication kinetics to the parent virus, indicating that these genes can be modified with low frequency. Additionally, the use of CRISPR/Cas9 significantly accelerated the production of recombinant ASFV strains, reducing the time required from several months to less than two months. The study also highlighted the potential of CRISPR/Cas12a for sensitive and specific detection of ASFV, which could be crucial for on-site diagnostics and control of ASF outbreaks. The findings underscore the utility of CRISPR/Cas9 and CRISPR/Cas12a systems in both the study of ASFV pathogenesis and the development of rapid diagnostic tools. These advancements could pave the way for more effective control measures and the potential development of live-attenuated vaccines for ASFV.

African Swine Fever Virus; CRISPR/Cas9; Gene editing; Pathogenesis; Diagnostic tools; Recombinant virus; ASFV detection