The RNA-programmable Cas9 endonuclease cleaves double-stranded DNA at sites complementary to a 20-base-pair guide RNA. The Cas9 system has been used to modify genomes in multiple cells and organisms, demonstrating its potential as a facile genome-engineering tool. We used in vitro selection and high-throughput sequencing to determine the propensity of eight guide-RNA:Cas9 complexes to cleave each of 1012 potential off-target DNA sequences. The selection results predicted five off-target sites in the human genome that were confirmed to undergo genome cleavage in HEK293T cells upon expression of one of two guide-RNA:Cas9 complexes. In contrast to previous models, our results show that guide-RNA:Cas9 specificity extends past a 7- to 12-base-pair seed sequence. Our results also suggest a tradeoff between activity and specificity both in vitro and in cells as a shorter, less-active guide RNA is more specific than a longer, more-active guide RNA. High concentrations of guide-RNA:Cas9 complexes can cleave off-target sites containing mutations near or within the PAM that are not cleaved when enzyme concentrations are limiting.
High-throughput profiling of off-target DNA cleavage reveals RNA-programmed Cas9 nuclease specificity
V. Pattanayak,Steven Lin,J. Guilinger,E. Ma,J. Doudna,David R. Liu
Published 2013 in Nature Biotechnology
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- Publication year
2013
- Venue
Nature Biotechnology
- Publication date
2013-08-11
- Fields of study
Biology, Medicine
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- Source metadata
Semantic Scholar, PubMed
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