McKay, AlexanderBurgio, Gaetan2023-08-162023-08-161674-8301http://hdl.handle.net/1885/295613The discovery and utilization of RNA-guided surveillance complexes, such as CRISPR-Cas9, for sequencespecific DNA or RNA cleavage, has revolutionised the process of gene modification or knockdown. To optimise the use of this technology, an exploratory race has ensued to discover or develop new RNA-guided endonucleases with the most flexible sequence targeting requirements, coupled with high cleavage efficacy and specificity. Here we review the constraints of existing gene editing and assess the merits of exploiting the diversity of CRISPR-Cas effectors as a methodology for surmounting these limitations.Gaetan Burgio is supported by the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure (NCRIS) via Phenomics Australia, the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (Grant No. APP1143008), the Australian Research Council (Grant No. DP180101494) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 81772214).application/pdfen-AU© 2021 by the Journal of Biomedical Research.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/CRISPR-Cas systemsgene editingbiological evolutionDNA repairclassificationDNA transposable elements202110.7555/JBR.35.202001842022-07-24Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License