RNA-guided genome engineering: paradigm shift towards transposons

Abstract

CRISPR-Cas systems revolutionized the genome engineering field but need to induce double-strand breaks (DSBs) and may be difficult to deliver due to their large protein size. Tn7-like transposons such as CRISPR-associated transposons (CASTs) can be repurposed for RNA-guided DSB-free integration, and obligate mobile element guided activity (OMEGA) proteins of the IS200/IS605 transposon family have been developed as hypercompact RNA-guided genome editing tools. CASTs and OMEGA are exciting, innovative genome engineering tools that can improve the precision and efficiency of editing. This review explores the recent developments and uses of CASTs and OMEGA in genome editing across prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. The pros and cons of these transposon-based systems are deliberated in comparison to other CRISPR systems.

Keywords: CASTs; CRISPR; OMEGA; RNA-guided genome engineering; double-strand break; transposon.