Small molecule-triggered Cas9 protein with improved genome-editing specificity

  • Nat Chem Biol. 2015 May;11(5):316-8. doi: 10.1038/nchembio.1793.
Kevin M Davis  1 ,  Vikram Pattanayak  2 ,  David B Thompson  1 ,  John A Zuris  1 ,  David R Liu  1
Affiliations
  • 1. 1] Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. [2] Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
  • 2. Department of Pathology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
PMID: 25848930 DOI: 10.1038/nchembio.1793
Abstract

Directly modulating the activity of genome-editing proteins has the potential to increase their specificity by reducing activity following target locus modification. We developed Cas9 nucleases that are activated by the presence of a cell-permeable small molecule by inserting an evolved 4-hydroxytamoxifen-responsive intein at specific positions in Cas9. In human cells, conditionally active Cas9s modify target genomic sites with up to 25-fold higher specificity than wild-type Cas9.

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