A light-inducible CRISPR-Cas9 system for control of endogenous gene activation
February 9th, 2015 by Lauren R Polstein
Nature Chemical Biology 11, 198 (2015). doi:10.1038/nchembio.1753
Authors: Lauren R Polstein & Charles A Gersbach
Optogenetic systems enable precise spatial and temporal control of cell behavior. We engineered a light-activated CRISPR-Cas9 effector (LACE) system that induces transcription of endogenous genes in the presence of blue light. This was accomplished by fusing the light-inducible heterodimerizing proteins CRY2 and CIB1 to a transactivation domain and the catalytically inactive dCas9, respectively. The versatile LACE system can be easily directed to new DNA sequences for the dynamic regulation of endogenous genes.