Project description:We have developed a therapeutic strategy for beta-hemoglobinopathies aimed at reactivating fetal hemoglobin expression in red blood cells derived from human hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells edited with CRISPR/Cas9 nucleases, cytidine or adenine base editors targeting the fetal gamma-globin promoters. Here, we report the transcriptomic changes occurring in human hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (obtained from healthy donors) 48 h after transfection with CRISPR/Cas9 nucleases, cytidine or adenine base editors.
Project description:Since information in intracellular calcium signaling is often frequency encoded, it is physiologically critical and experimentally useful to have reliable, convenient, and non-invasive methods to entrain it. Because of cell-to-cell variability, synchronization of intracellular signaling across a population of genetically identical cells can still be difficult to achieve. For intrinsically oscillatory signaling pathways, such as calcium, upon continuous stimulation, cell-to-cell variability is manifested as differences in intracellular response frequencies. Even with entrainment using periodic stimulation, cell-to-cell variability is manifested as differences in the fidelity with which extracellular inputs are converted into intracellular signals. Here we present a combined theoretical and experimental analysis that shows how to appropriately balance stimulation strength, duration, and rest intervals to achieve entrainment with high fidelity stimulation-to-response ratios for G-protein-coupled receptor-triggered intracellular calcium oscillations. We further demonstrate that stimulation parameters that give high fidelity entrainment are significantly altered upon changes in intracellular enzyme levels and cell surface receptor levels. Theoretical analysis suggests that, at key threshold values, even small changes in these protein concentrations or activities can result in precipitous changes in entrainment fidelity, with implications for pathophysiology.
Project description:C-to-T base editing mediated by CRISPR/Cas9 base editors (BEs) needs a G/C-rich PAM and the editing fidelity is compromised by unwanted indels and non-C-to-T substitutions. We developed CRISPR/Cpf1-based BEs to recognize a T-rich PAM and induce efficient C-to-T editing with few indels and/or non-C-to-T substitutions. The requirement of editing fidelity in therapeutic-related trials necessitates the development of CRISPR/Cpf1-based BEs, which also facilitates base editing in A/T-rich regions.
Project description:An enduring issue in evolutionary and cancer biology is how replication infidelity influences genome composition and vice versa. Here we examine this issue by sequencing the genomes of diploid budding yeast strains that are either mismatch repair (MMR) proficient or deficient and encode wild type or mutator variants of the three major nuclear DNA replicases. Analysis of over 43,000 mutations that accumulated in the absence of selective pressure demonstrates that the nuclear DNA replication machinery generates less than one mismatch per genome and in combination with MMR, achieves a genome-wide per base error rate of 1.7 x 10-10. Absent both MMR and purifying selection, replication error patterns strongly depend on replication origin proximity, replication fork direction, and the local DNA sequence. Preferred sequences were observed for base substitutions and deletions. Error rates also vary with replication time, in linker versus nucleosome-bound DNA, in 5'- and 3'-untranslated regions, in coding regions and in intergenic DNA. This genome-wide view shows that replication fidelity is amazingly high but heterogeneous, in patterns that suggest the underlying mechanisms by which replication modulates genome stability and composition and vice versa. Six to ten isolates were sequenced for each combination of DNA polymerase (WT, pol1-L868M, pol2-M644G, pol3-L612M) and mismatch repair (proficient, deficient) genotypes. A single WT isolate was sequenced following micrococcal nuclease digestion.
Project description:The mismatch repair (MMR) family is a highly conserved group of proteins that function in correcting base-base and insertion-deletion mismatches generated during DNA replication. To systematically investigate the mismatch repair pathway, we conducted a proteomic analysis and identified MMR-associated protein complexes using a tandem-affinity purification coupled with mass spectrometry (TAP-MS) method. In total, we identified 262 high-confidence candidate interaction proteins (HCIPs).
Project description:Base Editing has been touted the most intelligent and precise application of the CRISPR platform so far, merging the simplicity of RNA-guided nucleases with deaminases that allow for the programmable generation of single base substitutions - without introduction of double-strand breaks. Even though the two-component system has been expected to cause off-target substitutions, studies involving cytosine base editors (CBEs) showed that in most cases, relatively few single base off-targets could be detected on DNA. We introduce the concept of multi-dimensional off-targeting, presenting an extensive amount of RNA cytidines being edited by DNA base editors. Epitranscriptomic off-target effects affected different cell lines and were independent of the guide RNAs used, suggesting Cas9-independent activity of the cytidine deaminase rAPOBEC1 on single-stranded RNA. With the help of protein engineering, we developed CBE variants with massively reduced inadvertent mutation of RNA that preserve and enhance DNA base editing capabilities.
Project description:Base Editing has been touted the most intelligent and precise application of the CRISPR platform so far, merging the simplicity of RNA-guided nucleases with deaminases that allow for the programmable generation of single base substitutions - without introduction of double-strand breaks. Even though the two-component system has been expected to cause off-target substitutions, studies involving cytosine base editors (CBEs) showed that in most cases, relatively few single base off-targets could be detected on DNA. We introduce the concept of multi-dimensional off-targeting, presenting an extensive amount of RNA cytidines being edited by DNA base editors. Epitranscriptomic off-target effects affected different cell lines and were independent of the guide RNAs used, suggesting Cas9-independent activity of the cytidine deaminase rAPOBEC1 on single-stranded RNA. With the help of protein engineering, we developed CBE variants with massively reduced inadvertent mutation of RNA that preserve and enhance DNA base editing capabilities.
Project description:Base Editing has been touted the most intelligent and precise application of the CRISPR platform so far, merging the simplicity of RNA-guided nucleases with deaminases that allow for the programmable generation of single base substitutions - without introduction of double-strand breaks. Even though the two-component system has been expected to cause off-target substitutions, studies involving cytosine base editors (CBEs) showed that in most cases, relatively few single base off-targets could be detected on DNA. We introduce the concept of multi-dimensional off-targeting, presenting an extensive amount of RNA cytidines being edited by DNA base editors. Epitranscriptomic off-target effects affected different cell lines and were independent of the guide RNAs used, suggesting Cas9-independent activity of the cytidine deaminase rAPOBEC1 on single-stranded RNA. With the help of protein engineering, we developed CBE variants with massively reduced inadvertent mutation of RNA that preserve and enhance DNA base editing capabilities.
Project description:Base Editing has been touted the most intelligent and precise application of the CRISPR platform so far, merging the simplicity of RNA-guided nucleases with deaminases that allow for the programmable generation of single base substitutions - without introduction of double-strand breaks. Even though the two-component system has been expected to cause off-target substitutions, studies involving cytosine base editors (CBEs) showed that in most cases, relatively few single base off-targets could be detected on DNA. We introduce the concept of multi-dimensional off-targeting, presenting an extensive amount of RNA cytidines being edited by DNA base editors. Epitranscriptomic off-target effects affected different cell lines and were independent of the guide RNAs used, suggesting Cas9-independent activity of the cytidine deaminase rAPOBEC1 on single-stranded RNA. With the help of protein engineering, we developed CBE variants with massively reduced inadvertent mutation of RNA that preserve and enhance DNA base editing capabilities.
Project description:The mismatch repair (MMR) family is a highly conserved group of proteins that function in correcting base-base and insertion-deletion mismatches generated during DNA replication. To systematically investigate the mismatch repair pathway, we conducted a proteomic analysis and identified MMR-associated protein complexes using a tandem-affinity purification coupled with mass spectrometry (TAP-MS) method. In total, we identified 262 high-confidence candidate interaction proteins (HCIPs).