Abstract

The Cas9 enzyme has revolutionized biology in less than a decade. Engineering Cas9 to expand its functionality has become a major research goal, yet assaying variants of Cas9 remains a laborious task that is commonly performed with gel electrophoresis. Fluorescence assays have been reported for Cas9 but their utility for assaying variants of Cas9 has not been investigated in detail. Here we use a simple fluorescent assay to resolve differences of activity between the wild type Streptococcus pyogenes Cas9 (SpCas9) and SpCas9-NG, a variant with an expanded PAM repertoire. We compare the kinetics of the two enzymes on dozens of mutated RNA guides - highlighting the benefits of fluorescence such as quantitativity, sensitivity, multiplexing, non-invasiveness and real-timeness. This validates fluorescence as a tool for engineering Cas9 and lays the groundwork for directly evolving Cas9 in microfluidic compartments.