Cpf1 is a class 2/typeV CRISPR effector that has been recently harnessed for genome editing in animal and human cell. Compared with CRIPSR-Cas9 system, Cpf1 recognizes thymidine-rich sequence as the protospacer-adjacent motif (PAM) at the 5’ end of target sequences (generally, 5’-TTTN). It requires only a single shorter crRNA (40 nt) and cleaves DNA in a staggered fashion with 5′ overhangs. However, the function of Cpf1 in plants still remains unexplored.

Recently, Wang’s research team from China National Rice Research Institute (CNRRI) carried out genetic transformation with codon-optimized Cpf1 of Lachnospiraceae bacterium ND2006 and Acidaminococcus sp. BV3L6 in rice. The results showed that CRISPR-LbCpf1 system can be used for genome editing in rice. Thus, the work provides an alternative genome-editing tool in plants.

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China, and the Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Program of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. The research finding has been published in Journal of Genetics and Genomics online on December 5, 2016 (DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jgg.2016.12.001). More details are available on the links bellow: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1673852716301916