While there are many gene regulation mechanisms from the cell itself, I was wondering whether it is possible to increase the gene activity in a living cell permanently (so that the protein that it codes for is produced in higher amounts) using methods of biotechnology (i.e. no external factors)? Are there any studies or experiments regarding this topic?
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$\begingroup$ What do you mean by "Using the methods of Biology"? Genetic modification? Breeding? Evidently yes in that case. $\endgroup$– DavidCommented May 8, 2020 at 11:09
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$\begingroup$ @David oh I actually wanted to write biotechnology. So yes, this would include genetic modification. Do you know any studies or experiments using genetic modification to increase gene activity? $\endgroup$– jng224Commented May 8, 2020 at 11:18
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$\begingroup$ I don't particularly want to answer your question as I am not an expert in this field, and others can and will no doubt answer now you have clarified it. However there must be dozens of practical examples in modification of crops and lifestock, these based on earlier experiments with simpler organisms. $\endgroup$– DavidCommented May 8, 2020 at 11:26
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$\begingroup$ Do you want to increase telomerase production with CRISPR? $\endgroup$– Serg KryvonosCommented May 10, 2020 at 10:24
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1$\begingroup$ @Sergei I actually just asked general, but that might be an interesting application $\endgroup$– jng224Commented May 10, 2020 at 13:16
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4 Answers
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There are technologies available for inducing higher (or lower) gene expression in cultured mammalian/human cells as well as in bacteria. The state of the art is CRISPR-mediated gene activation/repression, where you fuse a transcription activation domain to a Cas gene in a CRISPR-Cas system (usually Cas9), and provide a guide RNA to target genes of interest. This Cas gene is made "nuclease-dead" so that it can only target but not cut or degrade DNA (as opposed to natural CRISPR-Cas systems that do both), and serves to bring the transcription activation domain to your gene of interest, which leads to an increase in transcription of that gene.
Check out this paper for an earlier example of such a system in cultured cell lines. The field has advanced quite a bit since then, and people have successfully activated genes in mouse lines
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If you are after large amounts of a particular protein, search "recombinant protein production". It is a huge field.
answered May 9, 2020 at 10:01
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A sequence is executed with transcriptase. To double amount of signaling or some protein production try doubling the sequence occurrence.
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It can be done. I've found this article which describes how cou can use a modified CRISPR-Cas9 mechanism to either repress or activate transcription.