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Allen JW, Gyngell C, Koplin JJ, Vears DF. The Parliamentary Inquiry into Mitochondrial Donation Law Reform (Maeve's Law) Bill 2021 in Australia: A Qualitative Analysis. J Bioeth Inq 2024; 21:67-80. [PMID: 37530962 PMCID: PMC11052762 DOI: 10.1007/s11673-023-10257-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/10/2022] [Accepted: 04/03/2023] [Indexed: 08/03/2023]
Abstract
Recently, Australia became the second jurisdiction worldwide to legalize the use of mitochondrial donation technology. The Mitochondrial Donation Law Reform (Maeve's Law) Bill 2021 allows individuals with a family history of mitochondrial disease to access assisted reproductive techniques that prevent the inheritance of mitochondrial disease. Using inductive content analysis, we assessed submissions sent to the Senate Committee as part of a programme of scientific inquiry and public consultation that informed drafting of the Bill. These submissions discussed a range of bioethical and legal considerations of central importance to the political debate. Significantly, submissions from those with a first-hand experience of mitochondrial disease, including clinicians and those with a family history of mitochondrial disease, were in strong support of this legislation. Those in support of the Bill commended the two-staged approach and rigorous licencing requirements as part of the Bill's implementation strategy. Submissions which outlined arguments against the legislation either opposed the use of these techniques in general or opposed aspects of the implementation strategy in Australia. These findings offer a window into the ethical arguments and perspectives that matter most to those Australians who took part in the Senate inquiry into mitochondrial donation. The insights garnered from these submissions may be used to help refine policy and guidelines as the field progresses.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Christopher Gyngell
- Biomedical Ethics Research Group, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Parkville, Australia
- Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Julian J Koplin
- Monash University, Wellington Rd, Clayton, Australia
- Biomedical Ethics Research Group, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Parkville, Australia
- Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia
| | - Danya F Vears
- Biomedical Ethics Research Group, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Parkville, Australia.
- Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
- Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia.
- Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Center for Biomedical Ethics and Law, Leuven, Belgium.
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Masaki Y, Cayer D, McBride R, Ghadiri MR. A kinetically controlled, isothermal method for the detection of single nucleotide mismatches. Bioorg Med Chem Lett 2018; 28:2754-2758. [PMID: 29500066 DOI: 10.1016/j.bmcl.2018.02.024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/18/2018] [Accepted: 02/13/2018] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
We describe an isothermal, enzyme-free method to detect single nucleotide differences between oligonucleotides of close homology. The approach exploits kinetic differences in toe-hold-mediated, nucleic acid strand-displacement reactions to detect single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with essentially "digital" precision. The theoretical underpinning, experimental analyses, predictability, and accuracy of this new method are reported. We demonstrate detection of biologically relevant SNPs and single nucleotide differences in the let-7 family of microRNAs. The method is adaptable to microarray formats, as demonstrated with on-chip detection of SNP variants involved in susceptibility to the therapeutic agents abacavir, Herceptin, and simvastatin.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yoshiaki Masaki
- Department of Chemistry and The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, 10550 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, CA 92037, United States
| | - Devon Cayer
- Department of Chemistry and The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, 10550 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, CA 92037, United States
| | - Ryan McBride
- Department of Chemistry and The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, 10550 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, CA 92037, United States
| | - M Reza Ghadiri
- Department of Chemistry and The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, 10550 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, CA 92037, United States.
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Abstract
The potential impact of CRISPR/Cas9, TALE, and zinc finger technology is immense, both with respect to their use as tools for understanding the roles and functions of the genomic elements and epigenome modifications in an endogenous context and as new methods for treatment of diseases. Application of such technologies has drawn attention, however, to the prevailing lack of effective delivery methods. Promising viral and non-viral methods both currently fall short when the efficient delivery of large plasmids or multiple plasmids is required. Therefore, the use of TALE and CRISPR platforms has been severely limited in applications where selection methods to increase the relative proportion of treated cells are not applicable, and it represents a significant bottleneck in the further application of these tools as therapeutics.The protocol presented here describes the synthesis of a dendronized polymer as a highly efficient and nontoxic transfection agent. Furthermore, the optimization of the polymer as a co-transfection reagent for large and multiple plasmids in cell lines is described, in addition to general considerations for co-transfection experiments. Usage of this method has allowed for significantly improved large plasmid co-transfection efficiency over Lipofectamine 2000 in multiple cell lines, allowing an improved delivery of CRISPR/dCas9 and TALE systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jessica A Kretzmann
- School of Molecular Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, Australia
- Cancer Epigenetics Group, Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research, Nedlands, WA, Australia
| | - Cameron W Evans
- School of Molecular Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, Australia
| | - Marck Norret
- School of Molecular Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, Australia
| | - Pilar Blancafort
- Cancer Epigenetics Group, Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research, Nedlands, WA, Australia.
- School of Human Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia.
| | - K Swaminathan Iyer
- School of Molecular Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, Australia.
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Abstract
The recent emergence of the CRISPR/Cas system has boosted the possibilities for precise genome engineering approaches throughout all kingdoms of life. The most common application for plants is targeted mutagenesis, whereby a Cas9-mediated DNA double-strand break (DSB) is repaired by mutagenic nonhomologous end joining (NHEJ). However, the site-specific alteration of a genomic sequence or integration of a transgene relies on the precise repair by homologous recombination (HR) using a suitable donor sequence: this poses a particular challenge in plants, as NHEJ is the preferred repair mechanism for DSBs in somatic tissue. Here, we describe our recently developed in planta gene targeting (ipGT) system, which works via the induction of DSBs by Cas9 to activate the target and the targeting vector at the same time, making it independent of high transformation efficiencies.
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Abstract
The CRISPR/Cas system has recently become the most important tool for genome engineering due to its simple architecture that allows for rapidly changing the target sequence and its applicability to organisms throughout all kingdoms of life. The need for an easy-to-use and reliable nuclease is especially high in plant research, as precise genome modifications are almost impossible to achieve by Agrobacterium-mediated transformation and the regeneration of plants from protoplast cultures is very labor intensive. Here, we describe the application of the Cas9 nuclease to Arabidopsis thaliana for the induction of heritable targeted mutations, which may also be used for other plant species. To cover the concern for off-target activity, we also describe the generation of stable mutants using paired Cas9 nickases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Simon Schiml
- Botanical Institute II, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, POB 6980, 76049, Karlsruhe, Germany
| | - Friedrich Fauser
- Department of Plant Biology, Carnegie Institution for Science, 260 Panama St, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA
| | - Holger Puchta
- Botanical Institute II, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, POB 6980, 76049, Karlsruhe, Germany.
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Schiml S, Puchta H. Revolutionizing plant biology: multiple ways of genome engineering by CRISPR/Cas. Plant Methods 2016; 12:8. [PMID: 26823677 PMCID: PMC4730597 DOI: 10.1186/s13007-016-0103-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 87] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/05/2015] [Accepted: 01/05/2016] [Indexed: 05/20/2023]
Abstract
The precise manipulation of plant genomes relies on the induction of DNA double-strand breaks by site-specific nucleases to initiate DNA repair reactions that are either based on non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) or homologous recombination (HR). Recently, the CRISPR/Cas system emerged as the most important tool for genome engineering due to its simple structure and its applicability to a wide range of organisms. Here, we review the current status of its various applications in plants, where it is used for the successful generation of stable mutations in a steadily growing number of species through NHEJ. Furthermore, tremendous progress in plant genome engineering by HR was obtained by the setup of replicon mediated and in planta gene targeting techniques. Finally, other complex approaches that rely on the induction of more than one DNA lesion at a time such as paired nickases to avoid off-site effects or controlled genomic deletions are beginning to be applied routinely.
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Affiliation(s)
- Simon Schiml
- Botanical Institute II, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, POB 6980, 76049 Karlsruhe, Germany
| | - Holger Puchta
- Botanical Institute II, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, POB 6980, 76049 Karlsruhe, Germany
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Siegrist M, Hartmann C, Sütterlin B. Biased perception about gene technology: How perceived naturalness and affect distort benefit perception. Appetite 2015; 96:509-516. [PMID: 26505287 DOI: 10.1016/j.appet.2015.10.021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2015] [Revised: 10/17/2015] [Accepted: 10/20/2015] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
In two experiments, the participants showed biased responses when asked to evaluate the benefits of gene technology. They evaluated the importance of additional yields in corn fields due to a newly introduced variety, which would increase a farmer's revenues. In one condition, the newly introduced variety was described as a product of traditional breeding; in the other, it was identified as genetically modified (GM). The two experiments' findings showed that the same benefits were perceived as less important for a farmer when these were the result of GM crops compared with traditionally bred crops. Mediation analyses suggest that perceived naturalness and the affect associated with the technology per se influence the interpretation of the new information. The lack of perceived naturalness of gene technology seems to be the reason for the participants' perceived lower benefits of a new corn variety in the gene technology condition compared with the perceptions of the participants assigned to the traditional breeding condition. The strategy to increase the acceptance of gene technology by introducing plant varieties that better address consumer and producer needs may not work because people discount its associated benefits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael Siegrist
- ETH Zurich, Institute for Environmental Decisions (IED), Consumer Behavior, Universitätstrasse 22, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland.
| | - Christina Hartmann
- ETH Zurich, Institute for Environmental Decisions (IED), Consumer Behavior, Universitätstrasse 22, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Bernadette Sütterlin
- ETH Zurich, Institute for Environmental Decisions (IED), Consumer Behavior, Universitätstrasse 22, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland
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Abstract
A key role in essential cellular processes is played by RNA molecules, and these are attractive targets for drug design. The functional diversity of RNA can be attributed to the sophisticated three-dimensional structures it assumes. These intricate folds create potential binding pockets for ions, low molecular weight ligands, and proteins. Recent experiments have demonstrated that small molecules such as tobramycin (1) can regulate gene expression in living cells through specific interactions with a messenger RNA (mRNA).
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Affiliation(s)
- Yitzhak Tor
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0358 (USA), Fax: (+1) 619-534-5383
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Abstract
The astonishing discovery that peptide nucleic acids (PNAs, B=nucleobase), in spite of their drastic structural difference to natural DNA, are better nucleic acid mimetics than many other oligonucleotides has resulted in an explosion of research into this class of compounds. The synthesis, physical properties, and biological interactions of PNAs as well as their chimeras with DNA and RNA are summarized here.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eugen Uhlmann
- Hoechst Marion Roussel Deutschland GmbH, G 838, D-65926 Frankfurt am Main (Germany), Fax: (+49) 69-305-89713
| | - Anusch Peyman
- Hoechst Marion Roussel Deutschland GmbH, G 838, D-65926 Frankfurt am Main (Germany), Fax: (+49) 69-305-89713
| | - Gerhard Breipohl
- Hoechst Marion Roussel Deutschland GmbH, G 838, D-65926 Frankfurt am Main (Germany), Fax: (+49) 69-305-89713
| | - David W Will
- Hoechst Marion Roussel Deutschland GmbH, G 838, D-65926 Frankfurt am Main (Germany), Fax: (+49) 69-305-89713
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