Applications and Prospects of CRISPR-Cas system in Cyanobacteria

Abstract

Cyanobacteria are prokaryotic microorganisms with capacity to perform photosynthesis and provide valuable platform to produce high-value bioactive compounds in carbon-neutral pathway. However, due to the relative lack of high throughput genetic manipulation tools for cyanobacteria, their usage for complexity chemicals is lagging behind. The gene editing technology based on the CRISPR-Cas system has the advantage of simplicity and efficiency in recent years, making it a new tool for synthetic biology of cyanobacteria. In this review, we first introduced the CRISPR-Cas system and the types of CRISPR-Cas in cyanobacteria. In addition, we review the development of CRISPR-based systems in cyanobacteria, including the use of CRISPR systems for gene integration, deletion, and transcriptional regulation. Meanwhile, the CRISPR system can couple different functional proteins to achieve point mutations, such as base editing. Finally, we discuss the current limitations of CRISPR technology and its future application prospects in cyanobacteria to make an outlook. Finally, we discussed the current limitations of CRISPR technology and its future application prospects in cyanobacteria.