Genes carry heredity information, defining the diversity and complexity of life. Gene editing is a pivotal technology in understanding and reshaping life, playing significant roles in biological research and industry. Traditional gene editing tools, such as meganucleases, ZFNs, and TALENs, are protein-based nucleases for DNA recognition and cleavage, making it difficult to reprogram for desired editing sites. The widely used CRISPR-Cas system, an RNA-guided ribonucleoprotein enzyme, recognizes DNA through the spacer sequences in guide RNA and has excellent reprogramming capability for gene editing. However, it still faces several drawbacks, including PAM restriction, large molecular weight, and immunogenicity.
On February 1, 2024, the Jun-Jie Gogo Liu’s group at the School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, published a research paper in Science titled ''Hydrolytic Endonucleolytic Ribozyme (HYER) is Programmable for Sequence-specific DNA Cleavage. '', which reports a catalytic RNA (ribozyme) – HYER (Hydrolytic Endonucleolytic Ribozyme). HYER can specifically cleave RNA and DNA substrates, inducing site-specific editing in the mammalian cell genome. Without the involvement of proteins, the recognition and cleavage of substrates are both achieved by RNA molecules, posing HYER’s potential to become the next-generation gene editing platform.