Abstract
It is established that for CRISPR-Cas9 applications guide RNAs with 17-20 bp long spacer sequences are optimal for accurate target binding and cleavage. In this work we perform cell-free CRISPRa (CRISPR activation) and CRISPRi (CRISPR inhibition) experiments to demonstrate the existence of a complex dependence of CRISPR-Cas9 binding as a function of the spacer length and complementarity. Our results show that significantly truncated or mismatched spacer sequences can form stronger guide-target bonds than the conventional 17-20 bp long spacers. To explain this phenomenon, we take into consideration previous structural and single-molecule CRISPR-Cas9 experiments and develop a novel thermodynamic model of CRISPR-Cas9 target recognition.
Original language | English (US) |
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Article number | 056003 |
Journal | Physical Biology |
Volume | 18 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Sep 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2021 IOP Publishing Ltd.
Keywords
- CRISPR-Cas9
- CRISPRa
- CRISPRi
- cell-free transcription translation
- synthetic biology
- thermodynamics