Harnessing endogenous CRISPR-Cas9 for inducible genetic engineering of Apilactobacillus kunkeei.
- Open access
Endogenous CRISPR-Cas9 enables nearly 100% efficient, scarless genetic modifications in Apilactobacillus kunkeei, a key honeybee microbiome member.
- Why it matters: Many ecologically and industrially important bacteria are difficult to genetically manipulate, limiting functional studies and applications in non-model organisms like A. kunkeei.
- What they did: The team developed an inducible genome-engineering platform utilizing A. kunkeei’s native Type II-A CRISPR-Cas9 system, achieving large gene deletions, replacements, and transcriptional repression with high efficiency.
- The result: This strategy provides a robust toolkit for functional genomics in A. kunkeei, enabling insights into honeybee health and microbial interactions, and demonstrates the potential of endogenous CRISPR systems for non-model bacteria.