Engineering domain-inlaid SaCas9 adenine base editors with reduced RNA off-targets and increased on-target DNA editing.

Nguyen Tran, Minh Thuan; Mohd Khalid, Mohd Khairul Nizam; Wang, Qi; Walker, Jacqueline K R; Lidgerwood, Grace E; Dilworth, Kimberley L; Lisowski, Leszek; Pébay, Alice et al. · Nat Commun · 2020

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Precision genome engineering has dramatically advanced with the development of CRISPR/Cas base editing systems that include cytosine base editors and adenine base editors (ABEs). Herein, we compare the editing profile of circularly permuted and domain-inlaid Cas9 base editors, and find that on-target editing is largely maintained following their intradomain insertion, but that structural permutation of the ABE can affect differing RNA off-target events. With this insight, structure-guided design was used to engineer an SaCas9 ABE variant (microABE I744) that has dramatically improved on-target editing efficiency and a reduced RNA-off target footprint compared to current N-terminal linked SaCas9 ABE variants. This represents one of the smallest AAV-deliverable Cas9-ABEs available, which has been optimized for robust on-target activity and RNA-fidelity based upon its stereochemistry.

Medical subject headings