Perceptions of Northwest Vocational Agriculture Instructors Regarding Knowledge of Microcomputers and Value of Proposed Micrcomputer Programs in Agriculture

The primary purpose of this study (Church, 1982) was to identify microcomputer topics that might be of value as part of the instructional programs of secondary vocational agriculture in Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. The specific objectives were to: Determine the knowledge possessed by Northwest vocational agriculture instructors regarding microcomputer usage and capability. Determine the need for inservice training in microcomputer usage for Northwest vocational agriculture instructors Determine which microcomputer systems were most readily available to Northwest vocational agriculture instructors. Analyze the value placed by Northwest vocational agriculture instructors on selected microcomputer topics for use in the curriculum

CHOPCHOP: a CRISPR/Cas9 and TALEN web tool for genome editing

Major advances in genome editing have recently been made possible with the development of the TALEN and CRISPR/Cas9 methods. The speed and ease of implementing these technologies has led to an explosion of mutant and transgenic organisms. A rate-limiting step in efficiently applying TALEN and CRISPR/Cas9 methods is the selection and design of targeting constructs. We have developed an online tool, CHOPCHOP (https://chopchop.rc.fas.harvard.edu), to expedite the design process. CHOPCHOP accepts a wide range of inputs (gene identifiers, genomic regions or pasted sequences) and provides an array of advanced options for target selection. It uses efficient sequence alignment algorithms to minimize search times, and rigorously predicts off-target binding of single-guide RNAs (sgRNAs) and TALENs. Each query produces an interactive visualization of the gene with candidate target sites displayed at their genomic positions and color-coded according to quality scores. In addition, for each possible target site, restriction sites and primer candidates are visualized, facilitating a streamlined pipeline of mutant generation and validation. The ease-of-use and speed of CHOPCHOP make it a valuable tool for genome engineering

An enhanced CRISPR repressor for targeted mammalian gene regulation.

The RNA-guided endonuclease Cas9 can be converted into a programmable transcriptional repressor, but inefficiencies in target-gene silencing have limited its utility. Here we describe an improved Cas9 repressor based on the C-terminal fusion of a rationally designed bipartite repressor domain, KRAB-MeCP2, to nuclease-dead Cas9. We demonstrate the system's superiority in silencing coding and noncoding genes, simultaneously repressing a series of target genes, improving the results of single and dual guide RNA library screens, and enabling new architectures of synthetic genetic circuits