• Microbial communities are major contributors to the uptake and release of greenhouse gasses and are critical regulators of human health; however, efforts to precisely engineer their constituents' DNA are nascent. Our laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley brings DNA-editing tools to microbiomes.

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• In the short term, this approach should provide understanding of the interactions and unstudied organisms within communities.

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• Over the longer term, community editing offers a precise means for controlling microbiomes that are instrumental to our health, agriculture, climate, and industry.