Applications in gene editing in cell totipotency

Abstract

Cell totipotency is that in multicellular organisms, each of cells contains all sets of genetic materials. Therefore, cells have the potential of developing into new individuals. According to tissue culture in plants, this has inspired biologists and they started conducting extensively in the field of cell totipotency for a long time. Moreover, scientists have made significant achievements in terms of the field in cell totipotency from embryonic cell division technology, nuclear transfer, induced pluripotent stem cells and so on. However, based on limitations in the development of technology, mechanisms of differentiation and dedifferentiation in animal cells are still unknown. The emergence of CRISPR technology in the twenty-first century has revolutionized an efficient method to research structures and functions in genes. Because of its durability and efficacy in genome editing, the CRISPR/Cas9 system has recently become one of the trendiest issues. Whats more, this kind of technology also had a huge breakthrough in many fields, and it has typically been used to genetically modify pluripotent stem cells, which are then differentiated into specific cell types and used for functional study and even clinical transplantation. This review aims to introduce the general applications of CRISPR and expound its potential breakthroughs and mechanisms in animal cell totipotency, which may guide future research efforts in this area.