Albinism as a visual, in vivo guide for CRISPR/Cas9 functionality in the sea urchin embryo

Understanding reproduction and development benefits enormously from a comparative approach. Sea urchins are important for many types of studies, including cell fate determination, morphogenesis, and gene regulatory networks. The CRISPR/Cas9 system of targeted DNA modification provides experimental opportunities for studying animal function in otherwise non-traditional genetic model systems, such as the sea urchin – indeed, CRISPR/Cas9 was recently used to inform how signaling networks lead to left-right asymmetry (Lin and Su, 2016). Here, we streamlined the genomic RNA (gRNA) construction step by targeting a non-essential gene that enables quick assessment of successful CRISPR/Cas9 function in the embryo, thus allowing for a simple visual readout of functional gene disruption. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved