CRISPR-Cas9 systems have been the "talk of the won" in various fields involving gene editing. Researchers from Arbor Biotechnologies and National Institutes of Health in the USA searched the metagenomic database and systematically found two more subtypes of type V CRISPR-Cas systems. The results are published in Science.

According to the report, the additional Cas12 effectors exhibit a range of activities, including target and collateral cleavage of single-stranded RNA and DNA, as well as double-stranded DNA nicking and cleavage. Such diversity of nuclease activities may imply how an ancient transposase may have evolved into various type V effectors and broaden the nucleic acid detection and CRISPR toolbox.
[science.sciencemag.org]