A series of spectacular scientific discoveries and technological advances in second half of the 20th century have provided the basis for the ongoing genome editing revolution. The elucidation of structural and functional features of and RNA was followed by pioneering studies on genome editing: Molecular technology was born. Since then, four decades followed during which progress of scientific insights and technological methods continued at an overwhelming pace. Fundamental insights into microbial host-virus interactions led to development of tools for genome editing using restriction enzymes or the revolu-tionary CRISPR-Cas technology. In this review, we provide a historical overview of milestones that led to the genome editing revolution and speculate about future trends in biotechnology.
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