CRISPR interference (CRISPRi) for gene regulation and succinate production in cyanobacterium S. elongatus PCC 7942

Background Cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942 holds promise for biochemical conversion, but gene deletion in PCC 7942 is time-consuming and may be lethal to cells. CRISPR interference (CRISPRi) is an emerging technology that exploits the catalytically inactive Cas9 (dCas9) and single guide RNA (sgRNA) to repress sequence-specific genes without the need of gene knockout, and is repurposed to rewire metabolic networks in various procaryotic cells.