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Updated: Sep 23, 2025

Enhanced Genome Editing with Cas9 Ribonucleoprotein in Diverse Cells and Organisms
Published on: May 25, 2018
Structural biology of CRISPR-Cas immunity and genome editing enzymes
Joy Y Wang1,2, Patrick Pausch3, Jennifer A Doudna4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11
1Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
Abstract:
CRISPR-Cas systems provide resistance against foreign mobile genetic elements and have a wide range of genome editing and biotechnological applications. In this Review, we examine recent advances in understanding the molecular structures and mechanisms of enzymes comprising bacterial RNA-guided CRISPR-Cas immune systems and deployed for wide-ranging genome editing applications. We explore the adaptive and interference aspects of CRISPR-Cas function as well as open questions about the molecular mechanisms responsible for genome targeting. These structural insights reflect close evolutionary links between CRISPR-Cas systems and mobile genetic elements, including the origins and evolution of CRISPR-Cas systems from DNA transposons, retrotransposons and toxin-antitoxin modules. We discuss how the evolution and structural diversity of CRISPR-Cas systems explain their functional complexity and utility as genome editing tools.
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