CDetection: CRISPR-Cas12b-based DNA detection with sub-attomolar sensitivity and single-base specificity

CRISPR-based nucleic acid detection methods are reported to facilitate rapid and sensitive DNA detection. However, precise DNA detection at the single-base resolution and its wide applications including high-fidelity SNP genotyping remain to be explored. Here we develop a Cas12b-mediated DNA detection (CDetection) strategy, which shows higher sensitivity on examined targets compared with the previously reported Cas12a-based detection platform. Moreover, we show that CDetection can distinguish differences at the single-base level upon combining the optimized tuned guide RNA (tgRNA). Therefore, our findings highlight the high sensitivity and accuracy of CDetection, which provides an efficient and highly practical platform for DNA detection. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s13059-019-1742-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.