Nature Communications (Nov 2016)
Structural roles of guide RNAs in the nuclease activity of Cas9 endonuclease
Abstract
In bacteria, CRISPR-Cas9 identifies and cleaves the target DNA with the assistance of a tracrRNA and a crRNA. Here the authors use single-molecule spectroscopy to investigate conformational changes and show that the tracrRNA keeps Cas9 in a functionally active form.