Uploaded June 2024 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
In a leap forward for genetic engineering, a team of researchers from the Arc Institute have discovered the bridge recombinase mechanism, a precise and powerful tool to recombine and rearrange DNA in a programmable way.
The study published today in Nature reports their discovery of the first DNA recombinase that uses a non-coding RNA for sequence-specific selection of target and donor DNA molecules. This bridge RNA is programmable, allowing the user to specify any desired genomic target sequence and any donor DNA molecule to be inserted.
"The bridge RNA system is a fundamentally new mechanism for biological programming," said Hsu, senior author of the study and an Arc Institute Core Investigator and UC Berkeley Assistant Professor of Bioengineering. "Bridge recombination can universally modify genetic material through sequence-specific insertion, excision, inversion, and more, enabling a word processor for the living genome beyond CRISPR."
Arc senior scientist Matthew Durrant and UC Berkeley bioengineering graduate student Nick Perry were the lead authors of the discovery. The research was developed in collaboration with the labs of Silvana Konermann, Arc Institute Core Investigator and Stanford University Assistant Professor of Biochemistry, and Hiroshi Nishimasu, Professor of Structural Biology at the University of Tokyo.
Durrant, M.G., Perry, N.T., Pai, J.J. et al. Bridge RNAs direct programmable recombination of target and donor DNA. Nature 630, 984–993 (2024). DOI:10.1038/s41586-024-07552-4
Hiraizumi, M., Perry, N.T., Durrant, M.G. et al. Structural mechanism of bridge RNA-guided recombination. Nature 630, 994–1002 (2024). DOI:10.1038/s41586-024-07570-2
In a leap forward for genetic engineering, a team of researchers from the Arc Institute have discovered the bridge recombinase mechanism, a precise and powerful tool to recombine and rearrange DNA in a programmable way.
The study published today in Nature reports their discovery of the first DNA recombinase that uses a non-coding RNA for sequence-specific selection of target and donor DNA molecules. This bridge RNA is programmable, allowing the user to specify any desired genomic target sequence and any donor DNA molecule to be inserted.
"The bridge RNA system is a fundamentally new mechanism for biological programming," said Hsu, senior author of the study and an Arc Institute Core Investigator and UC Berkeley Assistant Professor of Bioengineering. "Bridge recombination can universally modify genetic material through sequence-specific insertion, excision, inversion, and more, enabling a word processor for the living genome beyond CRISPR."
Arc senior scientist Matthew Durrant and UC Berkeley bioengineering graduate student Nick Perry were the lead authors of the discovery. The research was developed in collaboration with the labs of Silvana Konermann, Arc Institute Core Investigator and Stanford University Assistant Professor of Biochemistry, and Hiroshi Nishimasu, Professor of Structural Biology at the University of Tokyo.
Durrant, M.G., Perry, N.T., Pai, J.J. et al. Bridge RNAs direct programmable recombination of target and donor DNA. Nature 630, 984–993 (2024). DOI:10.1038/s41586-024-07552-4
Hiraizumi, M., Perry, N.T., Durrant, M.G. et al. Structural mechanism of bridge RNA-guided recombination. Nature 630, 994–1002 (2024). DOI:10.1038/s41586-024-07570-2
