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CRISPR

MicroRNAs tame CRISPR–Cas9

Nature Cell Biology volume 21, pages 416–417 (2019)Cite this article

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) repress target mRNAs, often with exquisite tissue specificity. Wang et al. exploit the specific expression of miRNAs to regulate guide production for Cas9. Their method enables novel strategies to simultaneously measure the activity of multiple miRNAs and restrict Cas9 binding or genome editing to precisely defined cell types.

In plants and animals, 20-to-24-nucleotide long microRNAs (miRNAs) target partially complementary mRNAs for destruction or translational repression1. The developmental-, tissue-, and cell-type-specific expression of miRNAs makes them ideal markers of cell identity and disease states. In this issue of Nature Cell Biology, Wang et al.2 report a novel method to restrict the production of RNA guides for Cas9 to cells expressing specific miRNAs. Their miRNA-inducible CRISPR (MICR) platform enables elegant strategies both for measuring miRNA levels and for controlling Cas9 activity with exquisite cell-type specificity.

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Fig. 1: The miRNA-inducible CRISPR–Cas9 (MICR) platform can monitor miRNA activity or restrict the activity of Cas9 or its fusion protein derivatives to precisely defined cell types.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. RNA Therapeutics Institute, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA

    Karina Jouravleva & Phillip D. Zamore

  2. Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA

    Phillip D. Zamore

Authors
  1. Karina Jouravleva
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  2. Phillip D. Zamore
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Correspondence to Karina Jouravleva or Phillip D. Zamore.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Jouravleva, K., Zamore, P.D. MicroRNAs tame CRISPR–Cas9. Nat Cell Biol 21, 416–417 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41556-019-0302-9

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