A CRISPRoff mutant screen using cellulases, xylanases and amylases A study using CRISPRoff to set up a quick and easy method to determine gene function

Abstract

Fungi are extremely important organisms that are widely used around the world for a variety of purposes. Understanding and manipulating the genetic landscape of fungi is a useful way to improve their efficacy. Recently, a CRISPR-Cas9 based method CRISPRoff/CRISPRon has been discovered. This method makes use of a dead Cas9 protein, induces gene silencing with CRISPRoff by methylating target DNA and demethylates DNA with CRISPRon. This study uses enzyme assays and phenotyping to show that by using CRISPRoff in combination with a gRNA library, you can study gene function in Aspergillus niger.