Structural basis for the promiscuous PAM recognition by Corynebacterium diphtheriae Cas9

Abstract

The RNA-guided DNA endonuclease Cas9 from Corynebacterium diphtheriae (CdCas9) recognizes a promiscuous protospacer adjacent motif (PAM). Here the authors provide insights into the CdCas9-mediated PAM recognition mechanism by determining the 2.9 Å crystal structure of CdCas9 in complex with the guide RNA and its target DNA, which is of interest for engineering of CRISPR-Cas9 genome-editor nucleases.