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HEREDITAS(Beijing) ›› 2015, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (11): 1125-1136.doi: 10.16288/j.yczz.15-093

• Reviews • Previous Articles     Next Articles

sgRNA design for the CRISPR/Cas9 system and evaluation of its off-target effects

Shengsong Xie1,Yi Zhang2,Lisheng Zhang1,Guanglei Li1,Changzhi Zhao1,Pan Ni1,Shuhong Zhao1   

  1. 1. Key Lab of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding, and Reproduction of Ministry of Education, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China;
    2. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, No.161 Hospital of PLA, Wuhan 430010, China
  • Received:2015-03-02 Revised:2015-06-18 Online:2015-11-20 Published:2015-08-03

Abstract: The third generation of CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome editing technology has been successfully applied to genome modification of various species including animals, plants and microorganisms. How to improve the efficiency of CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing and reduce its off-target effects has been extensively explored in this field. Using sgRNA (Small guide RNA) with high efficiency and specificity is one of the critical factors for successful genome editing. Several software have been developed for sgRNA design and/or off-target evaluation, which have advantages and disadvantages respectively. In this review, we summarize characters of 16 kinds online and standalone software for sgRNA design and/or off-target evaluation and conduct a comparative analysis of these different kinds of software through developing 38 evaluation indexes. We also summarize 11 experimental approaches for testing genome editing efficiency and off-target effects as well as how to screen highly efficient and specific sgRNA.

Key words: CRISPR/Cas9 system, genome editing, sgRNA, off-target effects