Adwoa

OXFORD NANOPORE LONG READ PLATFORM How many MOLECULES can one flow cell read? That depends on which flow cell you hold in your hand. 🧵

DIFFERENT CAS PROTEINS RECOGNISE DIFFERENT 🧬 MOTIFs Cas13 recognises RNA instead of DNA. After it finds its target, it turns into a tiny shredder & cuts nearby RNA that has nothing to do with the target. That collateral activity has been co-opted for diagnostics (SHERLOCK)

Most RNA sequencing begins with a small act of conversion. You take RNA, convert it into cDNA with reverse transcriptase, amplify it, & only then do you read it. It works beautifully, & I have used it for years, but every 1 of those steps leaves fingerprints on the data 📊

Let’s talk about IMMUNE SYSTEMS. Specifically, the immune system that is present in bacteria. Bacteria, including pathogenic ones also have their enemies called phages (viruses of bacteria).

While CRISPR-associated proteins (CAS) can cut anywhere in a genome, there is caveat. Each Cas protein needs a specific Protospacer Adjacent Motif (PAM). Even if the guide RNA perfectly matches the DNA, Cas9 won't cut unless the appropriate PAM sequence is beside the target.