Scientists saving endangered salmon get help from gene-slicing tool
The Hindu
Sherlock, which stands for Specific High-sensitivity Enzymatic Reporter Unlocking, identifies the fish using their genomic sequence
A gene-editing tool that has led to new cancer therapies and a rapid test for COVID-19 is now helping scientists find endangered species of salmon in the San Francisco Bay. The CRISPR-based Sherlock tool can identify four types of Chinook salmon, including Sacramento winter-run and Central Valley spring-run, which are both protected under the federal Endangered Species Act. "The Chinook are a great fit actually because all of the runs, more or less, look the same," said Andrea Schreier, an adjunct associate professor at the University of California Davis and coauthor of published last year in Molecular Ecology Resources that examined using this genetic identification on the endangered Delta smelt.More Related News