dCas9-VP64 CRISPRa Nuclease
Characteristics
Standard CRISPRa system for gene activation without DNA cleavage. Recruits transcriptional machinery to target promoters. Typically achieves 2-100× upregulation depending on target gene and cell type. Can be multiplexed with multiple guide RNAs for simultaneous multi-gene activation.
Architecture: Catalytically dead Cas9 (D10A/H840A) fused to VP64 transcriptional activation domain. VP64 is tetrameric repeat of VP16 minimal activation domain from herpes simplex virus.
References
- Mali et al. (2013). CAS9 transcriptional activators for target specificity screening and paired nickases for cooperative genome engineering. Nat Biotechnol - Mali 2013 Cas9 Nickase