Repurposing endogenous type I CRISPR-Cas systems for programmable gene repression.

ABSTRACT: CRISPR-Cas systems have shown tremendous promise as heterologous tools for genome editing and transcriptional regulation. Because these RNA-directed immune systems are found in most prokaryotes, an opportunity exists to harness the endogenous systems as convenient tools in these organisms. Here, we report that the Type I-E CRISPR-Cas system in Escherichia coli can be co-opted for programmable transcriptional repression. We found that deletion of the signature cas3 gene converted this immune system into a programmable gene regulator capable of reversible gene silencing of heterologous and endogenous genes. Targeting promoter regions yielded the strongest repression, whereas targeting coding regions showed consistent strand bias. Furthermore, multi-targeting CRISPR arrays could generate comp

SUBMITTER: Luo ML 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4288209 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature