Yeast Still a Beast: Diverse Applications of CRISPR/Cas Editing Technology in S. cerevisiae

The recent discovery and use of CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology has provided new opportunities for scientific research in many fields of study including agriculture, genetic disorders, human disease, biotechnology, and basic biological research. The ability to precisely target DNA sequences and either remove, modify, or replace genetic sequences provides a new level of control in nearly all eukaryotic organisms, including budding yeast. Given the many discoveries made in Saccharomyces cerevisiae over the past decades spanning genetics, cell biology, and biochemistry, as well as the development of new technologies that have allowed high throughput screening, robotic automation, and a platform for synthetic genome engineering, the yeast community has also started to recognize the utility and complementary nature of CRISPR-based methodologies. Here we present and review a variety of recent uses of Cas9 in budding yeast-both nuclease dependent and independent applications spanning traditional gene editing and replacement, to transcriptional modulation, to novel uses including the development of living circuitry or robotic platforms for synthetic genome construction. Yeast continues to serve as a powerful model system, yet it can still benefit from use of CRISPR for basic research, industrial application, and innovation of new Cas9-based applications.