Target specificity of the CRISPR-Cas9 system

Abstract

The CRISPR-Cas9 system, naturally a defense mechanism in prokaryotes, has been repurposed as an RNA-guided DNA targeting platform. It has been widely used for genome editing and transcriptome modulation, and has shown great promise in correcting mutations in human genetic diseases. Off-target effects are a critical issue for all of these applications. Here we review the current status on the target specificity of the CRISPR-Cas9 system.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

CRISPR / Cas9 / target specificity / off-targets / genome engineering

References

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We would like to thank the Sharp lab members for discussion and critical reading of the manuscript, and M. Lindstrom for assistance on constructing figures. This work was supported by United States Public Health Service grants RO1-GM34277 and R01-CA133404 from the National Institutes of Health (P.A.S.), PO1-CA42063 from the National Cancer Institute (P.A.S.), and partially by Cancer Center Support (core) grant P30-CA14051 from the National Cancer Institute. X.W. is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute International Student Research fellow.

The authors Xuebing Wu, Andrea J. Kriz and Phillip A. Sharp declare that they have no conflict of interests.

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2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg