The CRISPR-Cas9 system (IMAGE)

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

The CRISPR-Cas9 system

Caption

CRISPR-Cas9 is a reprogrammable DNA cutting machine that is being used to edit genomes in many organisms for research purposes. Its primary component, the Cas9 enzyme (orange), cuts genomic DNA (blue). The enzyme is directed to its target--essentially any sequence along the genome--by hitching it to a strand of guide RNA (green) whose sequence is complementary to that of the DNA target. Upon finding and pairing with it, Cas9 snips out the target segment. It can either be deleted or replaced with another DNA sequence (not shown here). A new resource published by Hannon and colleagues provides a library of guide sequences that significantly increases CRISPR's specificity, while limiting off-target effects. The platform also facilitates multiplexing and combinatorial targeting.

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Advanced Analytical Technologies

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