Arc researchers describe bridge RNAs that program recombinases to rearrange DNA (Nature)

Arc Institute/Evo genomic foundation models

Arc Institute researchers led by Patrick Hsu reported in Nature the bridge recombinase mechanism, the first DNA recombinase that uses a non-coding RNA to pick its DNA target. The bridge RNA can be programmed to specify both a genomic target and a donor DNA to insert, enabling sequence-specific rearrangement.

• Bridge recombination comes from IS110 transposable elements; differs from CRISPR by moving/inserting rather than cutting both strands.
• E. coli experiments showed >60% efficiency for inserting desired genes with high specificity.
• Recombinases can perform insertions, excisions, inversions and other rearrangements; bridge RNA guides specificity.
• Collaboration included Matthew Durrant and Nicholas Perry (UC Berkeley), Silvana Konermann (Stanford) and Hiroshi Nishimasu (University of Tokyo).