Pioneering Discovery of an Odor-detecting Receptor Enhancer
(WorldNews Japan)

Scientists at Tokyo Tech have identified a regulatory sequence that turns gene expression on, or simply an enhancer, for odor-detecting receptors, which form one of the largest gene clusters in the mouse genome. This was done using a combination of research methods, including the CRISPR-Cas9 system, which is a genome editing technique, the Bacillus subtilis synthetic genome vector system, which is a cloning system for large DNA fragments, and bioinformatics. Figure 1.Mechanism by which J element determines expression of olfactory receptor genes. Olfactory sensory neurons express either a class I or class II olfactory receptor gene in order to express either class I (blue) or class II (pink)...