Fanzor is a eukaryotic programmable RNA-guided endonuclease

Abstract

RNA-guided systems, which use complementarity between a guide RNA and target nucleic acid sequences for recognition of genetic elements, have a central role in biological processes in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes. For example, the prokaryotic CRISPR-Cas systems provide adaptive immunity for bacteria and archaea against foreign genetic elements. Cas effectors such as Cas9 and Cas12 perform guide-RNA-dependent DNA cleavage¹. Although a few eukaryotic RNA-guided systems have been studied, including RNA interference² and ribosomal RNA modification³, it remains unclear whether eukaryotes have RNA-guided endonucleases. Recently, a new class of prokaryotic RNA-guided systems (termed OMEGA) was reported^4,5. The OMEGA effector TnpB is the putative ancestor of Cas12 and has RNA-guided endonuclease activity^4,6. TnpB may also be the ancestor of the eukaryotic transposon-encoded Fanzor (Fz) proteins^4,7, raising the possibility that eukaryotes are also equipped with CRISPR-Cas or OMEGA-like programmable RNA-guided endonucleases. Here we report the biochemical characterization of Fz, showing that it is an RNA-guided DNA endonuclease. We also show that Fz can be reprogrammed for human genome engineering applications. Finally, we resolve the structure of Spizellomyces punctatus Fz at 2.7 Å using cryogenic electron microscopy, showing the conservation of core regions among Fz, TnpB and Cas12, despite diverse cognate RNA structures. Our results show that Fz is a eukaryotic OMEGA system, demonstrating that RNA-guided endonucleases are present in all three domains of life.