GuideScan software for improved single and paired CRISPR guide RNA design

• Published in: Nature biotechnology Vol. 35; no. 4; pp. 347 - 349
• Main Authors: Perez, Alexendar R, Pritykin, Yuri, Vidigal, Joana A, Chhangawala, Sagar, Zamparo, Lee, Leslie, Christina S, Ventura, Andrea
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Nature Publishing Group US 01.04.2017; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 45/47; 45/70; 49/40; 631/114/794; 631/61/191; Agriculture; Algorithms; Bioinformatics; Biomedical Engineering/Biotechnology; Biomedicine; Biotechnology; brief-communication; Chromosome Mapping - methods; Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats - genetics; CRISPR; CRISPR-Cas Systems - genetics; Design; Gene loci; Gene Silencing; Genomes; Life Sciences; Machine Learning; Methods; Open source software; Proteins; RNA sequencing; RNA, Small Interfering - genetics; Scientific software; Sequence Analysis, RNA - methods; Software; Technology application; New York; United States > US
• ISSN: 1087-0156; 1546-1696; 1546-1696
• DOI: 10.1038/nbt.3804

A tool for genome-wide design of CRISPR guide RNAs reduces off-target effects and facilitates targeting of the non-coding genome. We present GuideScan software for the design of CRISPR guide RNA libraries that can be used to edit coding and noncoding genomic regions. GuideScan produces high-density sets of guide RNAs (gRNAs) for single- and paired-gRNA genome-wide screens. We also show that the trie data structure of GuideScan enables the design of gRNAs that are more specific than those designed by existing tools.