CRISPeering: Bioengineering the Host Cells through CRISPRCas9 Genome Editing System as the Next-generation of Cell Factories

Background: Nowadays, the CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing system has become a popular bioengineering-based tool for various applications. Owing to its high-target specificity, efficiency, versatility, and simplicity, it has gained attention as a robust tool for molecular biology research, which unveils the biological functions of unexplored genes and engineers the metabolic pathways. Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells and Escherichia coli are regarded as the most commonly used expression platforms for industrial- scale production of recombinant proteins. The emergence of the CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing system promotes the current status of expression hosts towards controllable and predictable strains. Objective: This paper presents the current status of expression hosts for biopharmaceutical production. Some major accomplishments in the utilization of the CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing tool in the different prokaryotic and eukaryotic systems are discussed, and more importantly, the future directions of this newly arrived technology to make the next-generation cell factories with improved or novel properties are suggested. Moreover, the challenges faced in recent patents in this field are also discussed. Results and Conclusion: The CRISPR-Cas9 genome-editing tool has been adopted to be utilized in some major expression platforms. CRISPeering has been successfully employed for genome editing in different prokaryotic and eukaryotic host cells. The emergence of systems metabolic engineering, systems biology, and synthetic biology fortify the current situation of the CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing system.