Advances in large-scale DNA engineering with the CRISPR system

In recent years, DNA engineering technology has undergone significant advancements, with clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-based target-specific DNA insertion emerging as one of the most rapidly expanding and widely studied approaches. Traditional DNA insertion technologies employing recombinases typically involve introducing foreign DNA into genes in vivo by either pre-engineering recognition sequences specific to the recombinase or through genetic crossing to incorporate the requisite recognition sequence into the target gene. However, CRISPR-based gene insertion technologies have advanced to streamline this engineering process by combining the CRISPR-Cas module with recombinase enzymes. This process enables accurate and efficient one-step insertion of foreign DNA into the target gene in vivo. Here we provide an overview of the latest developments in CRISPR-based gene insertion technologies and discusses their potential future applications.