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Updated: Oct 19, 2026

Heuristic Mining of Hierarchical Genotypes and Accessory Genome Loci in Bacterial Populations
Published on: December 7, 2021
Metagenomic mining reveals novel Cas12 subtypes and their evolutionary diversification
Meixia Yu1, Zilong Zhao1, Peiyang Li1
1State Key Laboratory of Maize Bio-breeding, National Maize Improvement Center, Department of Plant Genetics and Breeding China Agricultural University Beijing China.
Abstract:
We identified 4112 Cas12 Proteins and 6 new Cas12 subtypes, revealed their significant diversity in N-terminal regions, repeat sequences, and sequences motifs. We developed an AI-driven algorithm, Cas12fam, which allows precise annotation of 18 distinct domains in Cas12 proteins. Through detailed structural analysis, we identified two novel glycine residues in the RuvC-like nuclease domains (RuvC-I, RuvC-II), which were experimentally validated to play a critical role in the DNA-cleavage activity of Cas12. Our analyses revealed that Cas12 proteins are enriched in specific environments, with significant variation in their abundance across ecological niches.
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