Prokaryotic Argonaute (pAgo) Nucleases

Characterization of DNA-guided (rather than RNA-guided) Argonaute proteins in bacteria/archaea, distinct from the RNA-guided eukaryotic Argonautes that carry out RNA interference. Swarts, Jore, Westra, Zhu, Janssen, Snijders, Wang, Patel, Berenguer & Brouns, "DNA-guided DNA interference by a prokaryotic Argonaute" (Nature 507, 258-261, 2014-02-14, OpenAlex W4246016408, 522 citations), in Thermus thermophilus, showed pAgo uses small DNA guides to cleave complementary DNA -- a nucleic-acid-targeting activity structurally unrelated to CRISPR-Cas despite a superficially similar "guide + nuclease" shape. Early-stage diagnostics and gene-editing-adjacent tool development is underway (some groups pursuing pAgo as a CRISPR alternative/complement), but this is real, pre-industry work, not yet a translated technology -- one step behind CBASS above.