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#guide RNA

3 public questions tagged with this topic.

CRISPR/Cas9 specificity is provided by:

Specificity of CRISPR Cas9 system is dictated predominantly by guide RNA rather than protein itself, contrasting with zinc finger and TALEN protein-guided recognition. Cas9 from Streptococcus pyogenes contains recognition lobe and nuclease lobe with HNH and RuvC domains, plus PAM interacting domain at C-terminus that scans DNA for 5'-NGG-3' PAM via major groove interactions, required for binding. Spontaneous DNA unwinding initiates RNA-DNA heteroduplex formation with 20 nt spacer of crRNA embedded in single guide RNA fusion with tracrRNA scaffold. Complementarity drives conformational activati

Ref: Jinek et al. Science 2012 337:816 Cas9 guide RNA; Nishimasu Cell 2014 156:935 specificity.

rRNA chemical modification is guided by

In eukaryotes, precursor ribosomal RNA transcribed as forty-seven S transcript in nucleolus undergoes extensive covalent base modifications essential for ribosome assembly, stability, and decoding accuracy. Modifications include about one hundred 2'-O-methylations and one hundred pseudouridylations guided not by protein enzymes recognizing sequence alone but by small nucleolar RNAs snoRNAs providing sequence complementarity to target site and positioning catalytic proteins fibrillarin for methylation and dyskerin for pseudouridylation. SnoRNAs are intron-encoded, highly abundant within dense f

Ref: Alberts et al., Molecular Biology of the Cell, 7th ed., Chapter 6: snoRNA guides rRNA chemical modification; Lodish 9th ed., Nucleolar rRNA processing

Guide RNAs are required for RNA editing in

In mitochondria of trypanosomatids including Trypanosoma brucei, many protein-coding genes exist as cryptogenes requiring extensive uridine insertion and deletion editing guided by small noncoding guide RNAs encoded in kinetoplast DNA. Guide RNAs form short anchor duplex with pre-messenger RNA upstream of editing sites, specifying positions via base pairing where editosome complex containing endonuclease, 3' terminal uridylyltransferase TUTase adding uridines, and RNA ligase executes insertions. Editing can add hundreds of uridines and delete dozens, dramatically remodeling open reading frames

Ref: Berg et al., Biochemistry, 9th ed., Chapter 28: Guide RNAs required for editing mitochondria of trypanosomes; Cell, Trypanosome editosome structure