Research Progress of CRISPR/Cas Gene Editing Technology in Enhancer Function Analysis and Identification

Enhancers are essential cis-regulatory DNA elements, which are involved in many biological processes and closely associated with the initiation and progression of cancer and various human diseases. Although bioinformatics-based methods can identify and screen enhancers, the uncertainty in the orientation and distance between enhancers and target genes makes it difficult to study the functional mechanism of enhancers in-depth. Recently, the continuous development and innovation of CRISPR/Cas technology makes it applicable to the investigation and validation on the molecular mechanisms of enhancers. This article reviews the progression of CRISPR/Cas technology and its application in biology and focuses on the innovative applications of CRISPR/Cas technology in enhancer research in recent years (e.g., how CRISPR/Cas technology edits enhancers and the principles of different CRISPR/Cas technologies), aiming to provide a feasible reference for further study on the enhancer functional analysis.