CRISPR-Cas is a new gene editing technique with high target-specificity. It has successful applications in gene knock-out/in/down in many Eukaryota organisms including zebra fish, fruit fly, mouse and monkey. CRISPR-Cas also offers many advantages in manipulating various human cell lines. But I have seen relatively fewer applications in bacteria genetic manipulations and synthetic biology. Does this technique have some limitations in bacterial genome editing? Does CRISPR-Cas have advantages over the traditional genetic tools for bacterial genetics such as homologous recombination?
People don't use CPRSPR-Cas technique in bacteria because it is not necessary. There are some techniques like allelic exchange and insertion inactivation that are simpler and more efficient. People use CRISPAR-Cas to do gene knock-out in higher organisms probably because they are diploids, there are always two copies of certain genes. Using traditional techniques would be less efficient.
One advantage is the higher efficiency of incorporating foreign genes into bacterial chromosome with the help of Cas protein and the crRNA guiding, as compared to traditional ways. Also, CRISPR-Cas is an efficiently way to do gene over-expression and interference in bacteria. Some potential applications in medical science are to use CRISPR-Cas to knockout virulence genes or antibiotic resistance genes from pathogens.
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