Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, USA.
EMBO J. 2019 Feb 15;38(4). doi: 10.15252/embj.2019101474. Epub 2019 Feb 7.
How does the Cas9 nuclease locate a specific 20‐nucleotide target sequence in a crowded intracellular environment packed with mega bases of distracting non‐target DNA? Previously, it was shown that Cas9 finds DNA targets via three‐dimensional diffusion. In this issue of , Globyte (2019) reveal another dimension of the search process, which involves short‐range one‐dimensional sliding. These results have implications for understanding the natural function of Cas9 and its applications in genome engineering experiments.
Cas9 核酸酶如何在挤满 mega 碱基干扰性非靶 DNA 的拥挤的细胞内环境中定位特定的 20 个核苷酸靶序列?先前的研究表明,Cas9 通过三维扩散来寻找 DNA 靶标。在本期的《自然》杂志中,Globyte(2019)揭示了搜索过程的另一个维度,即涉及短程一维滑动。这些结果对于理解 Cas9 的自然功能及其在基因组工程实验中的应用具有重要意义。