Figure 1. CRISPR/Cas9-based applications to study and manipulate the epigenome.
Main applications of the CRISPR/Cas9 system to study and manipulate the epigenome are based on the feasibility to allocate chromatin modifiers and fluorescent molecules in a very precise way. This includes the targeted reposition of transcriptional regulators, histone modifiers, enzymes responsible for changes in the DNA methylation, chromatin-interacting ncRNAs, and fluorescent molecules. (Grey dotted-boxes can be replaced with the colored-boxes corresponding to reported examples of chromatin-modifiers and fluorescent molecules). HDM: histone demethylase, HMT: histone methyltransferase, HAT: histone acetyltransferase, HDAC: histone deacyetylase, HUbq: histone ubiquitin ligase, DNMT: DNA methyltransferase, TET: ten-eleven translocation enzymes. Ac: acetylation, Me: methylation, Ub: ubiquitination.