Target DNA mutagenesis-based fluorescence assessment of off-target activity of the CRISPR-Cas9 system

The RNA-guided CRISPR/Cas9 system could cleave double-stranded DNA at the on-target sites but also induce off-target mutations in unexpected genomic regions. The base-pairing interaction of sgRNA with off-target DNA was still not well understood and also lacked a direct cell-based assay. Herein we developed a fast target DNA mutagenesis-based fluorescence assay to directly detect the Cas9 activity at different off-target sites in living cells. The results showed that Cas9 nuclease had low tolerance to the nucleotide mismatches in the binding region adjacent to PAM sites, and a tradeoff between Cas9 activity and specificity was also observed compared with the high-fidelity Cas9 variant. The combination of computer-based predictions and this target DNA mutagenesis-based fluorescence assay could further provide accurate off-target prediction guidance to minimize off-target effects to enable safer genome engineering.