Research Progress and Application of Miniature CRISPR-Cas12 System in Gene Editing

CRISPR-Cas system, a natural acquired immune system in prokaryotes that defends against exogenous DNA invasion because of its simple structure and easy operation, has been widely used in many research fields such as synthetic biology, crop genetics and breeding, precision medicine, and so on. The miniature CRISPR-Cas12 system has been an emerging genome editing tool in recent years. Compared to the commonly used CRISPR-Cas9 and CRISPR-Cas12a, the miniature CRISPR-Cas12 system has unique advantages, such as rich PAM sites, higher specificity, smaller volume, and cytotoxicity. However, the application of miniature Cas12 proteins and the methods to improve its editing efficiency have not been systematically summarized. In this review, we introduce the classification of CRISPR-Cas system and summarize the structural characteristics of type V CRISPR-Cas system and the cleavage mechanism of five miniature Cas12 proteins. The application of a miniature CRISPR-Cas12 system in the gene editing of animals, plants, and microorganisms is summarized, and the strategies to improve the editing efficiency of the miniature CRISPR-Cas12 system are discussed, aiming to provide reference for further understanding the functional mechanism and engineering modification of the miniature CRISPR-Cas12 system.