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Wei N, Shang L, Liu J, Wang M, Liu Y, Zhu C, Fei C, Zhang L, Yang F, Gu F. Engineered Staphylococcus auricularis Cas9 with high-fidelity. FASEB J 2023; 37:e23060. [PMID: 37389931 DOI: 10.1096/fj.202202132rr] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/22/2022] [Revised: 06/03/2023] [Accepted: 06/13/2023] [Indexed: 07/01/2023]
Abstract
CRISPR-Cas9 is a versatile gene editing tool with a broad application of basic research and clinical therapeutics. However, the potential impact caused by off-target effects remains a critical bottleneck. The small Cas9 ortholog from Staphylococcus auricularis (SauriCas9) was identified, which recognizes a 5'-NNGG-3' protospacer adjacent motif (PAM), exhibiting high activity for genome editing. Recently, we also reported enhanced-fidelity Staphylococcus aureus Cas9 (efSaCas9), which harbors a single mutation N260D. Protein sequence alignment revealed that SauriCas9 has 62.4% sequence identity with SaCas9. Because SauriCas9 is more flexible in recognizing the target sequence with PAM of 5'-NNGG-3' than SaCas9 of 5'-NNGRRT-3' PAM, we sought to test whether key mutation(N260D) or adjacent residue mutation in efSaCas9 can be appliable to SauriCas9. With this concept, two engineered SauriCas9 variants (SauriCas9-HF1, harboring the N269D mutation; SauriCas9-HF2, harboring the D270N mutation) dramatically improved targeting specificity by targeted deep sequencing and GUIDE-seq. At certain sites, reduced off-target effects (approximately 61.6- and 111.9-fold improvements) of SauriCas9-HF2 compared with wild-type SauriCas9 were observed. Overall, two identified SauriCas9 variants (SauriCas9-HF1 and SauriCas9-HF2) expand the utility of the CRISPR toolkit for research and therapeutic applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nan Wei
- Shanghai Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shanghai, China
- Key Laboratory of Veterinary Chemical Drugs and Pharmaceutics, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Shanghai, China
| | - Lu Shang
- Shanghai Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shanghai, China
- Key Laboratory of Veterinary Chemical Drugs and Pharmaceutics, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Shanghai, China
| | - Jing Liu
- Shanghai Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shanghai, China
- Key Laboratory of Veterinary Chemical Drugs and Pharmaceutics, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Shanghai, China
| | - Mi Wang
- Shanghai Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shanghai, China
- Key Laboratory of Veterinary Chemical Drugs and Pharmaceutics, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Shanghai, China
| | - Yingchun Liu
- Shanghai Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shanghai, China
- Key Laboratory of Veterinary Chemical Drugs and Pharmaceutics, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Shanghai, China
| | - Chuangang Zhu
- Shanghai Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shanghai, China
| | - Chenzhong Fei
- Shanghai Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shanghai, China
- Key Laboratory of Veterinary Chemical Drugs and Pharmaceutics, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Shanghai, China
| | - Lifang Zhang
- Shanghai Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shanghai, China
- Key Laboratory of Veterinary Chemical Drugs and Pharmaceutics, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Shanghai, China
| | - Fayu Yang
- Shanghai Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shanghai, China
- Key Laboratory of Veterinary Chemical Drugs and Pharmaceutics, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Shanghai, China
| | - Feng Gu
- Shanghai Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shanghai, China
- Key Laboratory of Veterinary Chemical Drugs and Pharmaceutics, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Shanghai, China
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