Applying CRISPR–Cas9 tools to identify and characterize transcriptional enhancers

CRISPR–Cas9-based genome editing tools have been developed recently to study non-coding transcriptional regulatory elements, enabling the characterization of enhancers in their endogenous context. The applications, current limitations and future development of such CRISPR–Cas9 tools are discussed, with emphasis on identifying and characterizing enhancer elements in a high-throughput manner.