Fusion of FokI and catalytically inactive prokaryotic Argonautes enables site-specific programmable DNA cleavage

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Site-specific nucleases are crucial for genome engineering applications in medicine and agriculture. The ideal site-specific nucleases are easily reprogrammable, highly specific in target site recognition, and robust in nuclease activities. Prokaryotic Argonaute (pAgo) proteins have received much attention as biotechnological tools due to their ability to recognize specific target sequences without a protospacer adjacent motif, but their lack of intrinsic dsDNA unwinding activity limits their utility in key applications such as gene editing. Recently, we developed a pAgo-based system for site-specific DNA cleavage at physiological temperatures independently of the DNA form, using peptide nucleic acids (PNAs) to facilitate unwinding dsDNA targets. Here, we fused catalytically dead pAgos with the nuclease domain of the restriction endonuclease FokI and named this modified platform PNA-assisted FokI-(d)pAgo (PNFP) editors. In the PNFP system, catalytically inactive pAgo recognizes and binds to a specific target DNA sequence based on a programmable guide DNA sequence; upon binding to the target site, the FokI domains dimerize and introduce precise dsDNA breaks. We explored key parameters of the PNFP system including the requirements of PNA and guide DNAs, the specificity of PNA and guide DNA on target cleavage, the optimal concentration of different components, reaction time for invasion and cleavage, and ideal temperature and reaction buffer, to ensure efficient DNA editing in vitro. The results demonstrated robust site-specific target cleavage by PNFP system at optimal conditions in vitro. We envision that the PNFP system will provide higher editing efficiency and specificity with fewer off-target effects in vivo.

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