TnpB: Transposon Retention Mechanisms as Potential Tools for Gene Editing

TnpB is a protein encoded by a transposon and serves as a key component in the prokaryotic OMEGA system. It is predicted to be the “ancestor” of the Cas12 protein in the CRISPR system. TnpB is a programmable RNA-guided DNA endonuclease, which uses ωRNA molecules to guide the binding and cleavage of target DNA. Compared to proteins like Cas9 and Cas12, TnpB is smaller in size, consisting of approximately 400 amino acids. This smaller size offers an advantage in cellular delivery efficiency, as a single viral particle can carry it and facilitate its entry into the cell nucleus, where the genomic DNA is located. This article provides a detailed discussion of TnpB’s structure, function, its relationship with other gene-editing systems, and its potential applications in gene editing, offering a comprehensive reference for further research and application of TnpB.