{"doi":"10.1101/2020.10.17.343996","title":"CRISPR-guided programmable self-assembly of artificial virus-like nucleocapsids","abstract":"Abstract Designer virus-inspired proteins drive the manufacturing of more effective and safer gene-delivery systems as well as simpler models to study viral assembly. However, the self-assembly of engineered viromimetic proteins on specific nucleic acid templates, a distinctive viral property, has proved difficult. Inspired by viral packaging signals, we harness the programmability of CRISPR-Cas12a to direct the nucleation and growth of a self-assembling synthetic polypeptide into virus-like particles (VLP) on specific DNA molecules. Positioning up to ten nuclease-dead Cas12a (dCas12a) proteins along a 48.5 kbp DNA template triggers particle growth and full DNA encapsidation at limiting polypeptide concentrations. Particle growth rate was further increased when dCas12a was dimerized with a polymerization silk-like domain. Such improved self-assembly efficiency allows for discrimination between cognate versus non-cognate DNA templates by the synthetic polypeptide. Our CRISPR-guided VLPs could help develop programmable bio-inspired nanomaterials with applications in biotechnology as well as viromimetic scaffolds to improve our understanding of viral self-assembly.","journal":"bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)","year":2020,"id":127506,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":1,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9489,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":105935,"name":"Ilya J. Finkelstein","orcid":"0000-0002-9371-2431","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":576351,"name":"Armando T. Hernández-García","orcid":"0000-0001-5505-3423","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":576350,"name":"Carlos Calcines-Cruz","orcid":"0000-0003-4524-8993","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":33,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:15:30.930746Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}