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Precise Transcript Targeting by CRISPR-Csm Complexes

View ORCID ProfileDavid Colognori, View ORCID ProfileMarena Trinidad, View ORCID ProfileJennifer A. Doudna
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.06.20.496908
David Colognori
1Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
2Innovative Genomics Institute, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
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Marena Trinidad
1Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
2Innovative Genomics Institute, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
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Jennifer A. Doudna
1Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
2Innovative Genomics Institute, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
3Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
4Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
5California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3), University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
6Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA
7Gladstone Institutes, San Francisco, CA, USA
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  • For correspondence: doudna@berkeley.edu
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ABSTRACT

Robust and precise transcript targeting in mammalian cells remains a difficult challenge using existing approaches due to inefficiency, imprecision, and subcellular compartmentalization. Here, we show that the CRISPR-Csm complex, a multi-protein effector from type III CRISPR immune systems in prokaryotes, provides surgical RNA ablation of both nuclear and cytoplasmic transcripts. As part of the most widely occurring CRISPR adaptive immunity pathway, CRISPR-Csm uses a programmable RNA-guided mechanism to find and degrade target RNA molecules without inducing indiscriminate trans-cleavage of cellular RNAs, giving it an important advantage over the CRISPR-Cas13-family enzymes. Using single-vector delivery of the S. thermophilus Csm complex, we observe high-efficiency RNA knockdown (90-99%) and minimal off-target effects in human cells, outperforming existing technologies including shRNA- and Cas13-mediated knockdown. We also find that catalytically inactivated Csm achieves specific and durable RNA binding, a property we harness for live-cell RNA imaging. These results establish the feasibility and efficacy of multi-protein CRISPR-Cas effector complexes as RNA-targeting tools in eukaryotes.

Competing Interest Statement

D.C. and J.A.D. have filed a related patent on use of the Csm system for eukaryotic RNA KD with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. J.A.D. is a co-founder of Caribou Biosciences, Editas Medicine, Intellia Therapeatucs, and Mammoth Biosciences, and a director of Johnson & Johnson. J.A.D. is a scientific advisor to Caribou Biosciences, Intellia Therapeutics, eFFECTOR Therapeutics, Scribe Therapeutics, Synthego, and Inari.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.
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Posted June 20, 2022.
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Precise Transcript Targeting by CRISPR-Csm Complexes
David Colognori, Marena Trinidad, Jennifer A. Doudna
bioRxiv 2022.06.20.496908; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.06.20.496908
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Precise Transcript Targeting by CRISPR-Csm Complexes
David Colognori, Marena Trinidad, Jennifer A. Doudna
bioRxiv 2022.06.20.496908; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.06.20.496908

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