Scientists who last year discovered a set of proteins that appeared to be alternatives to Cas9 have now confirmed that one of these molecules, C2c2, can be programmed to target single-stranded RNA in bacteria. The finding points to the possibility of RNA-editing applications for CRISPR.
“The community was expecting to find native RNA CRISPR systems, so it’s great that one of these has now been characterized,” Gene Yeo, an RNA researcher at the University of California, San Diego, who was not involved in the work told The Scientist.
“If C2c2 can be engineered such that the RNA cleaving activity is specific and no collateral RNA molecules are targeted, then this new tool could provide a much faster way of knocking down gene products over CRISPR interference or CRISPR nuclease which both act at the DNA level,” Mohammad Mandegar of the Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco, California, who was not involved ...
