Bi-FoRe: an efficient bidirectional knockin strategy to generate pairwise conditional alleles with fluorescent indicators

Abstract Gene expression labeling and conditional manipulation of gene function are important for elaborate dissection of gene function. However, contemporary generation of pairwise dual-function knockin alleles to achieve both conditional and geno-tagging effects with a single donor has not been re...

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Main Authors: Bingzhou Han, Yage Zhang, Xuetong Bi, Yang Zhou, Christopher J. Krueger, Xinli Hu, Zuoyan Zhu, Xiangjun Tong, Bo Zhang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Oxford University Press 2020-07-01
Series:Protein & Cell
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1007/s13238-020-00747-1
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author Bingzhou Han
Yage Zhang
Xuetong Bi
Yang Zhou
Christopher J. Krueger
Xinli Hu
Zuoyan Zhu
Xiangjun Tong
Bo Zhang
author_facet Bingzhou Han
Yage Zhang
Xuetong Bi
Yang Zhou
Christopher J. Krueger
Xinli Hu
Zuoyan Zhu
Xiangjun Tong
Bo Zhang
author_sort Bingzhou Han
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Gene expression labeling and conditional manipulation of gene function are important for elaborate dissection of gene function. However, contemporary generation of pairwise dual-function knockin alleles to achieve both conditional and geno-tagging effects with a single donor has not been reported. Here we first developed a strategy based on a flipping donor named FoRe to generate conditional knockout alleles coupled with fluorescent allele-labeling through NHEJ-mediated unidirectional targeted insertion in zebrafish facilitated by the CRISPR/Cas system. We demonstrated the feasibility of this strategy at sox10 and isl1 loci, and successfully achieved Cre-induced conditional knockout of target gene function and simultaneous switch of the fluorescent reporter, allowing generation of genetic mosaics for lineage tracing. We then improved the donor design enabling efficient one-step bidirectional knockin to generate paired positive and negative conditional alleles, both tagged with two different fluorescent reporters. By introducing Cre recombinase, these alleles could be used to achieve both conditional knockout and conditional gene restoration in parallel; furthermore, differential fluorescent labeling of the positive and negative alleles enables simple, early and efficient real-time discrimination of individual live embryos bearing different genotypes prior to the emergence of morphologically visible phenotypes. We named our improved donor as Bi-FoRe and demonstrated its feasibility at the sox10 locus. Furthermore, we eliminated the undesirable bacterial backbone in the donor using minicircle DNA technology. Our system could easily be expanded for other applications or to other organisms, and coupling fluorescent labeling of gene expression and conditional manipulation of gene function will provide unique opportunities to fully reveal the power of emerging single-cell sequencing technologies.
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spelling doaj.art-bf57ec43300c4577bca79749231aea1a2023-09-02T19:57:14ZengOxford University PressProtein & Cell1674-800X1674-80182020-07-01121395610.1007/s13238-020-00747-1Bi-FoRe: an efficient bidirectional knockin strategy to generate pairwise conditional alleles with fluorescent indicatorsBingzhou Han0Yage Zhang1Xuetong Bi2Yang Zhou3Christopher J. Krueger4Xinli Hu5Zuoyan Zhu6Xiangjun Tong7Bo Zhang8Key Laboratory of Cell Proliferation and Differentiation of the Ministry of Education, Peking University Genome Editing Research Center, College of Life Sciences, Peking UniversityKey Laboratory of Cell Proliferation and Differentiation of the Ministry of Education, Peking University Genome Editing Research Center, College of Life Sciences, Peking UniversityKey Laboratory of Cell Proliferation and Differentiation of the Ministry of Education, Peking University Genome Editing Research Center, College of Life Sciences, Peking UniversitySchool of Biology and Biological Engineering, South China University of TechnologyDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking UniversityInstitute of Molecular Medicine, Peking UniversityKey Laboratory of Cell Proliferation and Differentiation of the Ministry of Education, Peking University Genome Editing Research Center, College of Life Sciences, Peking UniversityKey Laboratory of Cell Proliferation and Differentiation of the Ministry of Education, Peking University Genome Editing Research Center, College of Life Sciences, Peking UniversityKey Laboratory of Cell Proliferation and Differentiation of the Ministry of Education, Peking University Genome Editing Research Center, College of Life Sciences, Peking UniversityAbstract Gene expression labeling and conditional manipulation of gene function are important for elaborate dissection of gene function. However, contemporary generation of pairwise dual-function knockin alleles to achieve both conditional and geno-tagging effects with a single donor has not been reported. Here we first developed a strategy based on a flipping donor named FoRe to generate conditional knockout alleles coupled with fluorescent allele-labeling through NHEJ-mediated unidirectional targeted insertion in zebrafish facilitated by the CRISPR/Cas system. We demonstrated the feasibility of this strategy at sox10 and isl1 loci, and successfully achieved Cre-induced conditional knockout of target gene function and simultaneous switch of the fluorescent reporter, allowing generation of genetic mosaics for lineage tracing. We then improved the donor design enabling efficient one-step bidirectional knockin to generate paired positive and negative conditional alleles, both tagged with two different fluorescent reporters. By introducing Cre recombinase, these alleles could be used to achieve both conditional knockout and conditional gene restoration in parallel; furthermore, differential fluorescent labeling of the positive and negative alleles enables simple, early and efficient real-time discrimination of individual live embryos bearing different genotypes prior to the emergence of morphologically visible phenotypes. We named our improved donor as Bi-FoRe and demonstrated its feasibility at the sox10 locus. Furthermore, we eliminated the undesirable bacterial backbone in the donor using minicircle DNA technology. Our system could easily be expanded for other applications or to other organisms, and coupling fluorescent labeling of gene expression and conditional manipulation of gene function will provide unique opportunities to fully reveal the power of emerging single-cell sequencing technologies.https://doi.org/10.1007/s13238-020-00747-1CRISPR/Casconditional knockoutallele labelingconditional rescueminicircle DNA
spellingShingle Bingzhou Han
Yage Zhang
Xuetong Bi
Yang Zhou
Christopher J. Krueger
Xinli Hu
Zuoyan Zhu
Xiangjun Tong
Bo Zhang
Bi-FoRe: an efficient bidirectional knockin strategy to generate pairwise conditional alleles with fluorescent indicators
Protein & Cell
CRISPR/Cas
conditional knockout
allele labeling
conditional rescue
minicircle DNA
title Bi-FoRe: an efficient bidirectional knockin strategy to generate pairwise conditional alleles with fluorescent indicators
title_full Bi-FoRe: an efficient bidirectional knockin strategy to generate pairwise conditional alleles with fluorescent indicators
title_fullStr Bi-FoRe: an efficient bidirectional knockin strategy to generate pairwise conditional alleles with fluorescent indicators
title_full_unstemmed Bi-FoRe: an efficient bidirectional knockin strategy to generate pairwise conditional alleles with fluorescent indicators
title_short Bi-FoRe: an efficient bidirectional knockin strategy to generate pairwise conditional alleles with fluorescent indicators
title_sort bi fore an efficient bidirectional knockin strategy to generate pairwise conditional alleles with fluorescent indicators
topic CRISPR/Cas
conditional knockout
allele labeling
conditional rescue
minicircle DNA
url https://doi.org/10.1007/s13238-020-00747-1
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