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. 2019 Jun 15;6:77. doi: 10.1038/s41438-019-0159-x

Fig. 1. The mechanism of CRISPR-Cas9-mediated genome engineering in plants.

Fig. 1

The sgRNA directs the SpCas9 protein to bind genomic DNA through a 20-nucleotide sequence and further guides it to introduce a DSB. This DSB causes random mutations when repaired by the error-prone NHEJ pathway or precise gene modification when repaired by the error-free HDR pathway. CRISPR, clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat; Cas, CRISPR-associated; DSB, double-strand break; HDR, homology-directed repair; NHEJ, non-homologous end-joining; sgRNA, single-guide RNA