RNA structure modulates Cas13 activity and enables mismatch detection.

ABSTRACT: The RNA-targeting CRISPR nuclease Cas13 has emerged as a powerful tool for applications ranging from nucleic acid detection to transcriptome engineering and RNA imaging^1-6. Cas13 is activated by the hybridization of a CRISPR RNA (crRNA) to a complementary single-stranded RNA (ssRNA) protospacer in a target RNA^1,7. Though Cas13 is not activated by double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) in vitro, it paradoxically demonstrates robust RNA targeting in environments where the vast majority of RNAs are highly structured^2,8. Understanding Cas13's mechanism of binding and activation will be key to improving its ability to detect and perturb RNA; however, the mechanism by which Cas13 binds structured RNAs remains unknown⁹. Here, we systematically probe the mec

SUBMITTER: Kimchi O 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10659300 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature