Cas1 epistasis tunes conformational coupling to enhance CRISPR adaptation

Abstract

CRISPR adaptation requires Cas1-Cas2 to capture prespacers, undergo conformational rearrangement and catalyse integration, but how these steps are coupled remains unclear. Using nine hyperactive Escherichia coli Cas1 substitutions as perturbational probes, we identified a prespacer-coupling module intersecting an interior conformational-coupling module. Single substitutions increased adaptation up to sixfold, whereas combinatorial reassortment generated a genotype with 103-fold greater activity than wild type. Genotype-network analysis and quantitative reconstruction revealed strong background-dependent epistasis: the same substitution could enhance activity in one genotype but impair it in another, and high activity emerged only from compatible combinations spanning both modules. These findings indicate that Cas1-Cas2 activity is constrained by compatibility among changes distributed across the Cas1 dimer, rather than by optimization of individual catalytic or DNA-binding interactions. We propose that coordinated tuning of prespacer engagement and conformational coupling governs Cas1-Cas2 activity during CRISPR adaptation.