A cold-adapted Cas9 nuclease from the deep ocean
- 1Modeling Human Diseases in C. elegans - Genes, Disease and Therapy Program, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute - IDIBELL, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcel
Abstract
The abundance of CRISPR systems in bacteria and archaea fuels the search for Cas nucleases that perform where established enzymes fail. Deep Ocean 1 Cas9 (DO1Cas9) is to our knowledge the first Cas9 nuclease characterized from the deep ocean, recovered from a metagenomic sample at 1,500 m depth in the Atlantic Ocean. DO1Cas9 shows cold-adapted structural flexibility, thermal susceptibility, salt-dependent stability, higher specificity than SpCas9 and cleaves double-stranded DNA efficiently under cold conditions where mesophilic SpCas9 retains only residual activity. DO1Cas9 edits genomes in diverse organisms such as Caenorhabditis elegans, zebrafish, the marine tunicate Oikopleura dioica, and the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. In the marine bacterium Marinomonas mediterranea, DO1Cas9 programmed against an invading phage reduced plaquing efficiency about 10-fold more than SpCas9. These results expand the CRISPR-Cas9 toolbox with a nuclease for cold-chain editing and marine biotechnology.
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BibTeX
@misc{olasollorca2026coldadapted,
title = {{A cold-adapted Cas9 nuclease from the deep ocean}},
author = {A. Olaso-Llorca and F. Colizzi and G. Mingarro and P. Sanchez and C. Sanchez-Bolanos and C. A. Molina and A. Martinez-Cazorla and R. Serrano-Duran and T. Urbaitis and N. Rodrigo Melero and A. Bosch and M. Magallon-Mosella and M. Margitfalvi and M. Stitilyte and C. Carolis and D. Romero-Moya and A. Giorgetti and A. Velazquez-Mudarra and D. Rajkovskii and F. Del Cano-Ochoa and D. Lopez-Farfan and J. Gomez and A. Ferrandez-Roldan and S. Ramon-Maiques and E. Gomez Diaz and C. Canestro and C. M. Duarte and J. M. Gasol and F. J. M. Mojica and A. Sanchez-Amat and M. A. Moreno-Mateos and G. Gasiunas and S. G. Acinas and J. Ceron},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.64898/2026.10.14.759226},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.14.759226v1},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - A cold-adapted Cas9 nuclease from the deep ocean
AU - A. Olaso-Llorca
AU - F. Colizzi
AU - G. Mingarro
AU - P. Sanchez
AU - C. Sanchez-Bolanos
AU - C. A. Molina
AU - A. Martinez-Cazorla
AU - R. Serrano-Duran
AU - T. Urbaitis
AU - N. Rodrigo Melero
AU - A. Bosch
AU - M. Magallon-Mosella
AU - M. Margitfalvi
AU - M. Stitilyte
AU - C. Carolis
AU - D. Romero-Moya
AU - A. Giorgetti
AU - A. Velazquez-Mudarra
AU - D. Rajkovskii
AU - F. Del Cano-Ochoa
AU - D. Lopez-Farfan
AU - J. Gomez
AU - A. Ferrandez-Roldan
AU - S. Ramon-Maiques
AU - E. Gomez Diaz
AU - C. Canestro
AU - C. M. Duarte
AU - J. M. Gasol
AU - F. J. M. Mojica
AU - A. Sanchez-Amat
AU - M. A. Moreno-Mateos
AU - G. Gasiunas
AU - S. G. Acinas
AU - J. Ceron
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/14
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.10.14.759226
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.14.759226v1
AB - The abundance of CRISPR systems in bacteria and archaea fuels the search for Cas nucleases that perform where established enzymes fail. Deep Ocean 1 Cas9 (DO1Cas9) is to our knowledge the first Cas9 nuclease characterized from the deep ocean, recovered from a metagenomic sample at 1,500 m depth in the Atlantic Ocean. DO1Cas9 shows cold-adapted structural flexibility, thermal susceptibility, salt-dependent stability, higher specificity than SpCas9 and cleaves double-stranded DNA efficiently under cold conditions where mesophilic SpCas9 retains only residual activity. DO1Cas9 edits genomes in diverse organisms such as Caenorhabditis elegans, zebrafish, the marine tunicate Oikopleura dioica, and the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. In the marine bacterium Marinomonas mediterranea, DO1Cas9 programmed against an invading phage reduced plaquing efficiency about 10-fold more than SpCas9. These results expand the CRISPR-Cas9 toolbox with a nuclease for cold-chain editing and marine biotechnology.
ER -