Development of Light-Activated CRISPR Using Guide RNAs with Photocleavable Protectors

The ability to remotely trigger CRISPR/Cas9 activity would enable new strategies to study cellular events with greater precision and complexity. In this work, we have developed a method to photocage the activity of the guide RNA called CRISPR-plus (CRISPR-precise light-mediated unveiling of sgRNAs). The photoactivation capability of our CRISPR-plus method is compatible with the simultaneous targeting of multiple DNA sequences and supports numerous modifications that can enable guide RNA labeling for use in imaging and mechanistic investigations.