ArticleNucleic acids research2025
CRISPR-Cas12a bends DNA to destabilize base pairs during target interrogation.
Article in Nucleic acids research, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 11 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed.
- Architecture of a DNA-guided Cas12a.Nature structural & molecular biology · 2026Article
- Molecular mechanisms and biotechnology applications of CRISPR-Cas12a.Nature reviews. Molecular cell biology · 2026Review
- Rho (bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Structure and evolution-guided design of minimal RNA-guided nucleases.Science (New York, N.Y.) · 2026Article
- TopCas: Topology-Gated Cas12a via DNA-RNA Chimeric Circular crRNA for Amplification-Free Nucleic Acid Detection and Conditional Gene Editing.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Structure and evolution-guided design of minimal RNA-guided nucleases.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- RAD51 D-loop structures reveal the mechanism of eukaryotic RAD51-mediated strand exchange.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Amplification-free cancer diagnosis based on inhibition of Cas12a activity by site-specific 5mC-modified cfDNA.Nucleic acids research · 2025Article
- DNA-Gold Nanoparticle Dumbbells: Synthesis and Nanoscale Characterization.Nanomaterials (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- CRISPR-Cas12a REC2-Nuc interactions drive target-strand cleavage and constrain trans cleavage.Nucleic acids research · 2025Article
- PAM-adjacent DNA flexibility tunes CRISPR-Cas12a off-target binding.Scientific reports · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
- Update of
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
RNA-guided endonucleases are involved in processes ranging from adaptive immunity to site-specific transposition and have revolutionized genome editing. CRISPR-Cas9, -Cas12 and related proteins use guide RNAs to recognize ∼20-nucleotide target sites within genomic DNA by mechanisms that are not yet fully understood. We used structural and biochemical methods to assess early steps in DNA recognition by Cas12a protein-guide RNA complexes. We show here that Cas12a initiates DNA target recognition by bending DNA to induce transient nucleotide flipping that exposes nucleobases for DNA-RNA hybridization. Cryo-EM structural analysis of a trapped Cas12a-RNA-DNA surveillance complex and fluorescence-based conformational probing show that Cas12a-induced DNA helix destabilization enables target discovery and engagement. This mechanism of initial DNA interrogation resembles that of CRISPR-Cas9 despite distinct evolutionary origins and different RNA-DNA hybridization directionality of these enzyme families. Our findings support a model in which RNA-mediated DNA interference begins with local helix distortion by transient CRISPR-Cas protein binding.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.