CRISPR-like Abilities in Eukaryotic Proteins

Two groups independently discovered that Fanzor proteins in eukaryotic organisms are CRISPR’s genome-editing cousins.

Written byIda Emilie Steinmark, PhD

| 5 min read

This shows a cryo-EM map of a Fanzor protein in complex with its guiding RNA (in purple) and DNA (target strand in red, complementary strand in blue).

Eukaryotic Fanzor proteins can be used to edit DNA. This image depicts a Fanzor protein in a cryo-EM map where the guiding RNA is purple and the DNA is red and blue.

Image credit:the Zhang lab at MIT, the Broad Institute

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Since the bacterial-origin CRISPR-Cas system rose to popularity as a genome editing tool, scientists have wondered whether other genome editors exist in nature. Now, two independent research teams have discovered that Fanzor proteins, which are found across eukaryotic life, function similar to the Cas nucleases in the CRISPR-Cas system, which means that they can be used for genome editing.

“One question that people always ask me is, if CRISPR is so abundant in the microbial prokaryotic world, how come it is nowhere else?” said Feng Zhang, a molecular biologist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Broad Institute who led the work published recently in Nature.¹ “What’s really exciting here is that Fanzors are in eukaryotes, so there are some systems resembling CRISPR-like systems in eukaryotic cells.”

What’s really exciting here is that Fanzors are in eukaryotes, so there are some systems resembling CRISPR-like systems in eukaryotic cells.

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Meet the Author

Ida Emilie Steinmark, PhD
Emilie joined the Scientist as an assistant editor in 2023 after writing for publications such as the Guardian, Scientific American, and STAT. She has a degree in chemistry and a PhD in biophysics, but she enjoys writing about everything from ancient DNA to organoids. She lives in Brooklyn, where she can often be found searching for songbirds with her binoculars.
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