The engineered CRISPR-Mb2Cas12a variant enables sensitive and fast nucleic acid-based pathogens diagnostics in the field

Existing CRISPR/Cas12a-based diagnostic platforms offer accurate and vigorous monitoring of nucleic acid targets, but have the potential to be further optimized for more efficient detection. Here, we profiled 16 Cas12a orthologs, focusing on their trans-cleavage activity and their potential as diagnostic enzymes. We observed the Mb2Cas12a has more robust trans-cleavage activity than other orthologs, especially at lower temperatures. An engineered Mb2Cas12a-RRVRR variant presented robust trans-cleavage activity and looser PAM constraints. Moreover, we found the existing one-pot assay, which simultaneously performed Recombinase Polymerase Amplification (RPA) and Cas12a reaction in one system, resulted in the loss of single-base discrimination during diagnosis. Therefore, we designed a reaction vessel that physically separated the RPA and Cas12a steps while maintaining a closed system. This isolated but closed system made diagnostics more sensitive and specific and effectively prevented contamination. This shelved Mb2Cas12a-RRVRR variant-mediated assay detected various targets in less than 15 min and exhibited equal or greater sensitivity than qPCR when detecting bacterial pathogens, plant RNA viruses and genetically modified crops. Overall, our findings further improved the efficiency of the current CRISPR-based diagnostic system and undoubtedly have great potential for highly sensitive and specific detection of multiple sample types.