{"id":1289,"date":"2020-09-16T16:13:25","date_gmt":"2020-09-16T16:13:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.idtdna.com\/page\/there-s-a-new-crispr-enzyme-for-editing"},"modified":"2025-08-22T16:17:34","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T16:17:34","slug":"there-s-a-new-crispr-enzyme-for-editing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.idtdna.com\/page\/support-and-education\/decoded-plus\/there-s-a-new-crispr-enzyme-for-editing\/","title":{"rendered":"There\u2019s a new CRISPR enzyme for editing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A new, more compact CRISPR-Cas enzyme has been found in the genomes of huge bacteriophages.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/science.sciencemag.org\/content\/369\/6501\/333\" target=\"_blank\">discovery<\/a>, announced in <em>Science <\/em>by a team of researchers from the United States and Australia, included a minimally functional CRISPR-Cas system dubbed Cas&phi;, is composed of a single 70-kilodalton protein and a CRISPR array in the bacteriophage genome.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Cas&phi; uses a single active site for both CRISPR RNA (crRNA) processing and a crRNA-guided DNA nuclease to target foreign nucleic acids,&rdquo; the authors stated.<\/p>\n<p>This tool, they said, can be used for <a href=\"\/pages\/education\/decoded\/crispr-genome-editing\" target=\"_blank\">genome editing<\/a>&nbsp;and <a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/192160406\" target=\"_blank\">DNA detection<\/a>&nbsp;but at half the molecular weight of <a href=\"\/pages\/products\/crispr-genome-editing\/alt-r-crispr-cas9-system\">Cas9<\/a>&nbsp;and <a href=\"\/pages\/products\/crispr-genome-editing\/alt-r-crispr-cpf1-genome-editing\">Cas12a<\/a>&nbsp;genome editing enzymes. It can target a wider range of genetic sequences than Cas9 and Cas12, noted a news release. Its target-expanding abilities were tested on both human and plant cells.<\/p>\n<p>Smaller Cas enzymes are good because they simplify the delivery of CRISPR-Cas systems into cells, and this new system may eventually be used in both diagnostics and therapeutics. Smaller sizes also help vector-based cell deliveries and potentially a wider range of targetable genomic sequences.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Useful for genome editing and DNA detection but with a molecular weight half that of Cas9 and Cas12a genome-editing enzymes, Cas&phi; offers advantages for cellular delivery that expand the genome editing toolbox,&rdquo; the authors wrote in the paper&rsquo;s abstract.<\/p>\n<p>The Cas&phi; nuclease was first described this winter in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41586-020-2007-4\" target=\"_blank\">paper<\/a>&nbsp;published in <em>Nature <\/em>as part of a DNA sequence from diverse ecosystems. That study uncovered hundreds of phage genomes which were more than 200 kilobases long&mdash;including one that was 735 kilobases.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Almost all phage CRISPR systems lack spacer acquisition machinery (Cas1, Cas2 and Cas4) and many lack recognizable genes for interference,&rdquo; the authors of the <em>Nature<\/em> study wrote.<\/p>\n<p>This is likely the tip of the Cas iceberg, study o-author Basem Al-Shayeb, from the University of California, Berkeley, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.genomeweb.com\/gene-silencinggene-editing\/crispr-enzyme-bacteriophage-targets-wider-range-dna-sequences-cas9-cas12#.X0Vsh-hKhPY\" target=\"_blank\">told Genome Web<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\"Even with all our knowledge on bacteria and viruses so far, we are barely scratching the surface regarding what is out there,\" he said. \"We are able to cultivate below 1 percent of the bacteria we know, and a small fraction of the viruses that infect that 1 percent. There is a lot to learn about the biology around us and what these entities can do.\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new, more compact CRISPR-Cas enzyme has been found in the genomes of huge bacteriophages. The discovery, announced in Science by a team of researchers from the United States and Australia, included a minimally functional CRISPR-Cas system dubbed Cas&phi;, is composed of a single 70-kilodalton protein and a CRISPR array in the bacteriophage genome. &ldquo;Cas&phi; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1290,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ct_builder_shortcodes":"","ct_template_type":"","ct_parent_template":0,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>A new CRISPR editing enzyme is described - Cas\u00cf\u2020 | IDT<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A new CRISPR enzyme for editing is super compact at half the weight of Cas9 and Cas12a. Scientists say it may eventually be used in diagnostics and therapeutics.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.idtdna.com\/page\/support-and-education\/decoded-plus\/there-s-a-new-crispr-enzyme-for-editing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A new CRISPR editing enzyme is described - Cas\u00cf\u2020 | IDT\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A new CRISPR enzyme for editing is super compact at half the weight of Cas9 and Cas12a. Scientists say it may eventually be used in diagnostics and therapeutics.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.idtdna.com\/page\/support-and-education\/decoded-plus\/there-s-a-new-crispr-enzyme-for-editing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"IDT\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-09-16T16:13:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-08-22T16:17:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.idtdna.com\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/idt-images\/7b6f8215-3279-6e2e-aa53-ff00001c1b3c_featured.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"840\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"supreme_admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"supreme_admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.idtdna.com\/page\/support-and-education\/decoded-plus\/there-s-a-new-crispr-enzyme-for-editing\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.idtdna.com\/page\/support-and-education\/decoded-plus\/there-s-a-new-crispr-enzyme-for-editing\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"supreme_admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.idtdna.com\/page\/#\/schema\/person\/5259624c7d0e737830199587f61fd4c0\"},\"headline\":\"There\u2019s a new CRISPR enzyme for editing\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-09-16T16:13:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-22T16:17:34+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.idtdna.com\/page\/support-and-education\/decoded-plus\/there-s-a-new-crispr-enzyme-for-editing\/\"},\"wordCount\":398,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.idtdna.com\/page\/support-and-education\/decoded-plus\/there-s-a-new-crispr-enzyme-for-editing\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.idtdna.com\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/idt-images\/7b6f8215-3279-6e2e-aa53-ff00001c1b3c_featured.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.idtdna.com\/page\/support-and-education\/decoded-plus\/there-s-a-new-crispr-enzyme-for-editing\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.idtdna.com\/page\/support-and-education\/decoded-plus\/there-s-a-new-crispr-enzyme-for-editing\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.idtdna.com\/page\/support-and-education\/decoded-plus\/there-s-a-new-crispr-enzyme-for-editing\/\",\"name\":\"A new CRISPR editing enzyme is described - Cas\u00cf\u2020 | IDT\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.idtdna.com\/page\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.idtdna.com\/page\/support-and-education\/decoded-plus\/there-s-a-new-crispr-enzyme-for-editing\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.idtdna.com\/page\/support-and-education\/decoded-plus\/there-s-a-new-crispr-enzyme-for-editing\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.idtdna.com\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/idt-images\/7b6f8215-3279-6e2e-aa53-ff00001c1b3c_featured.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-09-16T16:13:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-22T16:17:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.idtdna.com\/page\/#\/schema\/person\/5259624c7d0e737830199587f61fd4c0\"},\"description\":\"A new CRISPR enzyme for editing is super compact at half the weight of Cas9 and Cas12a. 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