Implementation of dCas9-mediated CRISPRi in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe

Abstract

Catalytically inactive mutant of Cas9 (dCas9) can repress gene transcription. This gene knockdown method, called CRISPRi, is useful because it can repress an arbitrary target gene only by changing the sgRNA sequence that determines target gene specificity. Here, dCas9-mediated CRISPRi is implemented for the deeply studied model organism fission yeast, and a method to design sgRNAs for efficient CRISPRi is offered. This will facilitate revealing gene functions and developing tools based on dCas9 technology in Schizosaccharomyces pombe.