Harnessing type I and type III CRISPR-Cas systems for genome editing

TY - JOUR

T1 - Harnessing type I and type III CRISPR-Cas systems for genome editing

AU - Li, Yingjun

AU - Pan, Saifu

AU - Zhang, Yan

AU - Ren, Min

AU - Feng, Mingxia

AU - Peng, Nan

AU - Chen, Lanming

AU - Liang, Yun Xiang

AU - She, Qunxin

N1 - © The Author(s) 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research.

PY - 2015/9/30

Y1 - 2015/9/30

N2 - CRISPR-Cas (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats-CRISPR-associated) systems are widespread in archaea and bacteria, and research on their molecular mechanisms has led to the development of genome-editing techniques based on a few Type II systems. However, there has not been any report on harnessing a Type I or Type III system for genome editing. Here, a method was developed to repurpose both CRISPR-Cas systems for genetic manipulation in Sulfolobus islandicus, a thermophilic archaeon. A novel type of genome-editing plasmid (pGE) was constructed, carrying an artificial mini-CRISPR array and a donor DNA containing a non-target sequence. Transformation of a pGE plasmid would yield two alternative fates to transformed cells: wild-type cells are to be targeted for chromosomal DNA degradation, leading to cell death, whereas those carrying the mutant gene would survive the cell killing and selectively retained as transformants. Using this strategy, different types of mutation were generated, including deletion, insertion and point mutations. We envision this method is readily applicable to different bacteria and archaea that carry an active CRISPR-Cas system of DNA interference provided the protospacer adjacent motif (PAM) of an uncharacterized PAM-dependent CRISPR-Cas system can be predicted by bioinformatic analysis.

AB - CRISPR-Cas (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats-CRISPR-associated) systems are widespread in archaea and bacteria, and research on their molecular mechanisms has led to the development of genome-editing techniques based on a few Type II systems. However, there has not been any report on harnessing a Type I or Type III system for genome editing. Here, a method was developed to repurpose both CRISPR-Cas systems for genetic manipulation in Sulfolobus islandicus, a thermophilic archaeon. A novel type of genome-editing plasmid (pGE) was constructed, carrying an artificial mini-CRISPR array and a donor DNA containing a non-target sequence. Transformation of a pGE plasmid would yield two alternative fates to transformed cells: wild-type cells are to be targeted for chromosomal DNA degradation, leading to cell death, whereas those carrying the mutant gene would survive the cell killing and selectively retained as transformants. Using this strategy, different types of mutation were generated, including deletion, insertion and point mutations. We envision this method is readily applicable to different bacteria and archaea that carry an active CRISPR-Cas system of DNA interference provided the protospacer adjacent motif (PAM) of an uncharacterized PAM-dependent CRISPR-Cas system can be predicted by bioinformatic analysis.

U2 - 10.1093/nar/gkv1044

DO - 10.1093/nar/gkv1044

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 26467477

SN - 0305-1048

VL - 44

JO - Nucleic Acids Research

JF - Nucleic Acids Research

IS - 4

M1 - e34

ER -