Feng Zhang

TL;DR: In this article, the authors used optogenetic tools to selectively stimulate VTA dopaminergic neuron action potential firing in freely behaving mammals and found that phasic activation of these neurons was sufficient to drive behavioral conditioning and elicited dopamine transients with magnitudes not achieved by longer, lower-frequency spiking.

TL;DR: An updated evolutionary classification of CRISPR–Cas systems and cas genes is provided, with an emphasis on the major developments that have occurred since the publication of the latest classification, in 2015, which includes 2 classes, 6 types and 33 subtypes.

TL;DR: Copy number variation, especially gene duplication and exon shuffling, can be a predominant mechanism driving gene and genome evolution and appear much higher for CNVs than for SNPs.

TL;DR: A type VI CRISPR-Cas system containing the programmable single-effector RNA-guided ribonuclease Cas13 is profiled in order to engineer a Cas13 ortholog capable of robust knockdown and REPAIR presents a promising RNA-editing platform with broad applicability for research, therapeutics, and biotechnology.

TL;DR: It is found that phasic activation of dopaminergic neurons was sufficient to drive behavioral conditioning and elicited dopamine transients with magnitudes not achieved by longer, lower-frequency spiking.