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Updated: Feb 28, 2026

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Published on: February 28, 2025
Cpf1 proteins excise CRISPR RNAs from mRNA transcripts in mammalian cells
Guocai Zhong1, Haimin Wang1, Yujun Li1,2
1Department of Immunology and Microbiology, The Scripps Research Institute, Jupiter, Florida, USA.
Abstract:
Cpf1 is a CRISPR effector protein that has greater specificity than Streptococcus pyogenes Cas9 (SpCas9) in genome-editing applications. Here we show that Lachnospiraceae bacterium (Lb) and Acidaminococus sp. (As) Cpf1 orthologs have RNase activities that can excise multiple CRISPR RNAs (crRNAs) from a single RNA polymerase II-driven RNA transcript expressed in mammalian cells. This property simplifies modification of multiple genomic targets and can be used to increase the efficiency of Cpf1-mediated editing.
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