A Comparison of the Efficiency of the T7-Endonuclease I Enzyme and Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis System in Evaluating the Cleavage Efficiency of the CRISPR/Cas9 System

Document Type : Original Article(s)

Authors

1 PhD Candidate, Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran

2 Professor, Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran

3 Associate Professor, Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran

4 Assistant Professor, Department of Hematology, School of Paramedical Sciences, Tehran Medical Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Background: Assessment of Cas9 cleavage in CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspersed Short Palindromic Repeat) system and screening of mutations is one of the challenges of this system. This study suggests a high-efficiency PCR-based method using non-denaturing PAGE that does not depend on the formation of heteroduplexes.
Methods: In this study, to investigate the CRISPR-Cas9 function, first, a proper guide RNA sequence with the target sequence was designed and synthesized. The BbsI digested pSpCas9(BB)-2A-GFP (PX458) vector and the guide RNA were cloned into the cleavage site. The recombinant plasmid was extracted, and after confirming the correctness of cloning using the sequencing technique, it was transfected into the HEK293T cell line. After confirming and determining the transfected percentage by flow cytometry, the genomic DNA of the cells carrying the recombinant vector was extracted. Two different PCR reactions were performed to check the function of the Cas9 enzyme in the desired region on the Beta-globin gene, and the cutting percentage was evaluated.
Findings: The enzymatic digestion of T7EI on the genome showed 32%, and the polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis system results showed a 66% function of the Cas9 enzyme. In this way, the PAGE system reliably detects changes as small as 5-10 base pairs in the length of the nucleic acid at the desired location.
Conclusion: The PAGE-based technique can replace the T7EI assay as a routine laboratory protocol for genotyping human cell lines produced by the CRISPR/Cas9 system.

Highlights

Nasim Mayeli Fereydani: Google Scholar

Hamid Galehdari: Google Scholar, PubMed

Elham Hoveizi: Google Scholar, PubMed

Monireh Ajami: Google Scholar, PubMed

Keywords

Main Subjects


  1. Yang H, Ren S, Yu S, Pan H, Li T, Ge S, et al. Methods favoring homology-directed repair choice in response to CRISPR/Cas9 induced-double strand breaks. Int J Mol Sci 2020; 21(18): 6461.
  2. Cox DBT, Platt RJ, Zhang F. Therapeutic genome editing: Prospects and challenges. Nat Med 2015; 21(2): 121-31.
  3. Kim H, Kim JS. A guide to genome engineering with programmable nucleases. Nat Rev Genet 2014; 15(5): 321-34.
  4. Gupta D, Bhattacharjee O, Mandal D, Sen MK, Dey D, Dasgupta A, et al. CRISPR-Cas9 system: A new-fangled dawn in gene editing. Life Sci 2019; 232: 116636.
  5. Finotti A, Breda L, Lederer CW, Bianchi N, Zuccato C, Kleanthous M, et al. Recent trends in the gene therapy of β-thalassemia. J Blood Med 2015; 6: 69-85.
  6. Asmamaw M, Zawdie B. Mechanism and applications of CRISPR/Cas-9-Mediated genome editing. Biologics 2021; 15: 353-61.
  7. Sander JD, Joung JK. CRISPR-Cas systems for genome editing, regulation and targeting. Nat Biotechnol 2014; 32(4): 347-55.
  8. Silva G, Poirot L, Galetto R, Smith J, Montoya G, Duchateau P, et al. Meganucleases and other tools for targeted genome engineering: Perspectives and challenges for gene therapy. Curr Gene Ther 2011; 11(1): 11-27.
  9. Cho SW, Kim S, Kim Y, Kweon J, Kim HS, Bae S, et al. Analysis of off-target effects of CRISPR/Cas-derived RNA-guided endonucleases and nickases. Genome Res 2014; 24(1): 132-41.
  10. Mali P, Yang L, Esvelt KM, Aach J, Guell M, DiCarlo JE, et al. RNA-guided human genome engineering via Cas9. Science 2013; 339(6121): 823-6.
  11. Jiang F, Doudna JA. CRISPR-Cas9 structures and mechanisms. Annu Rev Biophys 2017; 46: 505-29.
  12. Jinek M, East A, Cheng A, Lin S, Ma E, Doudna J. RNA-programmed genome editing in human cells. Elife 2013; 2: e00471.
  13. Cong L, Ran FA, Cox D, Lin S, Barretto R, Habib N,
    et al. Multiplex genome engineering using CRISPR/Cas systems. Science 2013; 339(6121): 819-23.
  14. Cho S, Kim S, Kim JM, Kim J. Targeted genome engineering in human cells with the Cas9 RNA-guided endonuclease. Nat Biotechnol 2013; 31(3): 230-2.
  15. Jinek M, Chylinski K, Fonfara I, Hauer M, Doudna JA, Charpentier E. A programmable dual-RNA-guided DNA endonuclease in adaptive bacterial immunity. Science 2012; 337(6096): 816-21.
  16. Xue C, Greene EC. DNA repair pathway choices in CRISPR-Cas9-Mediated genome editing. Trends Genet 2021; 37(7): 639-56.
  17. Ceccaldi R, Rondinelli B, D'Andrea AD. Repair pathway choices and consequences at the double-strand break. Trends Cell Biol 2016; 26(1): 52-64.
  18. Bravo JP, Liu MS, Hibshman GN, Dangerfield TL, Jung K, McCool RS, et al. Structural basis for mismatch surveillance by CRISPR-Cas9. Nature 2022; 603(7900): 343-7.
  19. Burger A, Lindsay H, Felker A, Hess C, Anders C, Chiavacci E, et al. Maximizing mutagenesis with solubilized CRISPR-Cas9 ribonucleoprotein complexes. Development 2016; 143(11): 2025-37.
  20. Ota S, Hisano Y, Muraki M, Hoshijima K, Dahlem TJ, Grunwald DJ, et al. Efficient identification of TALEN-mediated genome modifications using heteroduplex mobility assays. Genes Cells 2013; 18(6): 450-8.
  21. Zhou J, Shen B, Zhang W, Wang J, Yang J, Chen L, et al. One-step generation of different immunodeficient mice with multiple gene modifications by CRISPR/Cas9 mediated genome engineering. Int J Biochem Cell Biol 2014; 46: 49-55.
  22. Wijshake T, Baker DJ, van de Sluis B. Endonucleases: new tools to edit the mouse genome. Biochim Biophys Acta 2014; 1842(10): 1942-50.
  23. Dahlem TJ, Hoshijima K, Jurynec MJ, Gunther D, Starker CG, Locke AS, et al. Simple methods for generating and detecting locus-specific mutations induced with TALENs in the zebrafish genome.
    PLoS Genet 2012; 8(8): e1002861.
  24. D'Agostino Y, Locascio A, Ristoratore F, Sordino P, Spagnuolo A, Borra M, et al. A rapid and cheap methodology for CRISPR/Cas9 zebrafish mutant screening. Mol Biotechnol 2016; 58(1): 73-8.
  25. Zhang JP, Li XL, Neises A, Chen W, Hu LP, Ji GZ, et al. Different effects of sgRNA length on CRISPR-mediated gene knockout efficiency. Sci Rep 2016; 6: 28566.
  26. Chandrasekaran AR, Halvorsen K. Nuclease degradation analysis of DNA nanostructures using gel electrophoresis. Curr Protoc Nucleic Acid Chem 2020; 82(1): e115.
  27. Pulix M, Lukashchuk V, Smith DC, Dickson AJ. Molecular characterization of HEK293 cells as emerging versatile cell factories. Curr Opin Biotechnol 2021; 71: 18-24.
  28. Kalkan BM, Kala EY, Yuce M, Alpaslan MK, Kocabas F. Development of gene editing strategies for human β-globin (HBB) gene mutations. Gene 2020; 734: 144398.
  29. González-Domínguez I, Grimaldi N, Cervera L, Ventosa N, Gòdia F. Impact of physicochemical properties of DNA/PEI complexes on transient transfection of mammalian cells. N Biotechnol 2019; 49: 88-97.
  30. Haeussler M, Schönig K, Eckert H, Eschstruth A, Mianné J, Renaud JB, et al. Evaluation of off-target and on-target scoring algorithms and integration into the guide RNA selection tool CRISPOR. Genome Biol 2016; 17(1): 148.
  31. Vouillot L, Thélie A, Pollet N. Comparison of T7E1 and surveyor mismatch cleavage assays to detect mutations triggered by engineered nucleases. G3 (Bethesda) 2015; 5(3): 407-15.
  32. Lomov NA, Viushkov VS, Petrenko AP, Syrkina MS, Rubtsov MA. Methods of evaluating the efficiency of CRISPR/Cas genome editing. Mol Biol (Mosk) 2019; 53(6): 982-97.
  33. Lotfi M, Ashouri A, Mojarrad M, Mozaffari-Jovin S, Abbaszadegan MR. Design principles of a novel construct for HBB gene-editing and investigation of its gene-targeting efficiency in HEK293 cells. Mol Biotechnol 2023: 1-14.
  34. Zhu X, Xu Y, Yu S, Lu L, Ding M, Cheng J, et al. An efficient genotyping method for genome-modified animals and human cells generated with CRISPR/Cas9 system. Sci Rep 2014; 4: 6420.
Volume 41, Issue 740
4th Week, December
November and December 2023
Pages 929-937
  • Receive Date: 06 October 2023
  • Revise Date: 31 December 2023
  • Accept Date: 01 January 2024