Engineered anti-CRISPR proteins for optogenetic control of CRISPR-Cas9.

Bubeck, Felix; Hoffmann, Mareike D; Harteveld, Zander; Aschenbrenner, Sabine; Bietz, Andreas; Waldhauer, Max C; Börner, Kathleen; Fakhiri, Julia et al. · Nat Methods · 2018

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Anti-CRISPR proteins are powerful tools for CRISPR-Cas9 regulation; the ability to precisely modulate their activity could facilitate spatiotemporally confined genome perturbations and uncover fundamental aspects of CRISPR biology. We engineered optogenetic anti-CRISPR variants comprising hybrids of AcrIIA4, a potent Streptococcus pyogenes Cas9 inhibitor, and the LOV2 photosensor from Avena sativa. Coexpression of these proteins with CRISPR-Cas9 effectors enabled light-mediated genome and epigenome editing, and revealed rapid Cas9 genome targeting in human cells.

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