Compositions and methods are provided for novel Cas9 orthologs, including, but not limiting to, novel guide polynucleotide/Cas9 endonucleases complexes, single or dual guide RNAs, guide RNA elements, and Cas9 endonucleases. The present disclosure also describes methods for creating a double strand break in a target polynucleotide, methods for genome modification of a target sequence under various in vivo and in vitro conditions, in the genome of a cell, for gene editing, and for inserting a polynucleotide of interest into the genome of a cell. Also provided are nucleic acid constructs and cells having a modified target site or altered polynucleotide of interest produced by the methods described herein.