Project description:CRISPR-based gene perturbation enables unbiased investigations of single and combinatorial genotype-to-phenotype associations. In light of efforts to map combinatorial gene dependencies at scale, choosing an efficient and robust CRISPR-associated (Cas) nuclease is of utmost importance. Even though SpCas9 and AsCas12a are widely used for single, combinatorial, and orthogonal screenings, side-by-side comparisons remain sparse. Here, we systematically compared combinatorial SpCas9, AsCas12a, and CHyMErA in hTERT-immortalized retinal pigment epithelial cells and extracted performance-critical parameters for combinatorial and orthogonal CRISPR screens. Our analyses identified SpCas9 to be superior to enhanced and optimized AsCas12a, with CHyMErA being largely inactive in the tested conditions. Since AsCas12a contains RNA processing activity, we used arrayed dual-gRNAs to improve AsCas12a and CHyMErA applications. While this negatively influenced the effect size of combinatorial AsCas12a applications, it enhanced the performance of CHyMErA. This improved performance, however, was limited to AsCas12a dual-gRNAs, as SpCas9 gRNAs remained largely inactive. To avoid the use of hybrid gRNAs for orthogonal applications, we engineered the multiplex SpCas9-enAsCas12a system (multiSPAS) that avoids RNA processing for efficient orthogonal gene editing.
Project description:Genome editing using CRISPR-Cas systems is a promising avenue for the treatment of genetic diseases. However, cellular and humoral immunogenicity of genome editing tools, which originate from bacteria, complicates their clinical use. Here we report reduced immunogenicity (Red)(i)-variants of two clinically-relevant nucleases, SaCas9 and AsCas12a. Through MHC-associated peptide proteomics (MAPPs) analysis, we identified putative immunogenic epitopes on each nuclease. Then, we used computational modeling to rationally design these proteins to evade the immune response. SaCas9 and AsCas12a Redi variants were substantially less recognized by adaptive immune components, including reduced binding affinity to MHC molecules and attenuated generation of cytotoxic T cell responses, while maintaining wild-type levels of activity and specificity. In vivo editing of PCSK9 with SaCas9.Redi.1 was comparable in efficiency to wild-type SaCas9, but significantly reduced undesired immune responses. This demonstrates the utility of this approach in engineering proteins to evade immune detection.
Project description:We report the PAMs of AsCas12a using a cell-free TXTL-based cleavage assay. By adding randomized PAM library and AsCas12a-gRNA in vitro, functional PAM sequences were cleaved, while non-functional PAMs remained. By amplifying the non-cleaved DNA, we use next-generation sequencing to analyze the depletion of functional PAMs of AsCas12a.
2019-01-01 | GSE123443 | GEO
Project description:Test the editing efficiency of AsCas12a and SpCas9 in different settings
Project description:we characterized a novel compact Cas12a ortholog, EbCas12a, from the Erysipelotrichia bacterium with activities in mammalian cells. It is with the PAM sequence of 5’-TTTV-3’ (V=A, G, C) and the smallest size of ~3.47kb among reported Cas12a orthologs so far. Moreover, enhanced EbCas12a (enEbCas12a) was also developed to have comparable editing efficiency with higher specificity to AsCas12a and LbCas12a in mammalian cells. With the help of the compact enEbCas12a, all-in-one AAV delivery system with crRNA for Cas12a was developed for both in vitro and in vivo. Altogether, with the help of the novel smallest high fidelity enEbCas12a, this first case of the all-in-one AAV delivery for Cas12a could greatly boost future gene therapy and scientific research.
Project description:RNA base editing represents a promising alternative for genome editing. Recent approaches harness the endogenous RNA editing enzyme ADAR to circumvent problems related to the ectopic expression of an editing enzyme, but they suffer from sequence restriction, lack of efficiency, and bystander editing. Here, we present in‐silico optimized CLUSTER guide RNAs, which bind their target mRNAs in a multivalent fashion and thereby enable editing with unprecedented precision as shown by next generation sequencing. CLUSTER guide RNAs can be genetically encoded and manufactured into viruses to work in various cell lines. They achieve on‐target editing on endogenous transcripts like GUSB and NUP43 with yields up to 45% without bystander editing and have been shown to recruit endogenous ADAR in vivo. The CLUSTER approach tremendously enlarges the sequence space available for guide RNA design and opens new avenues for drug development in the field of RNA base editing.
Project description:As a potent and accurate genome-editing tool, CRISPR-Cas9 has been widely used in biomedical research and evaluated as gene therapy in treating human diseases. Although distinct engineered Cas9s, dCas9s and additional endonucleases have been identified, as these bacterial enzymes do not naturally express in mammalian cells, whether and how bacterial Cas9 proteins are regulated by mammalian hosts remains poorly understood. Here, we identified Keap1 as an endogenous E3 ligase that targets Cas9/dCas9/Fanzor1 for ubiquitination and degradation. Cas9-“ETGE” mutants evading Keap1 recognition displayed enhanced gene editing ability in cells. dCas9-“ETGE” mutants displayed extended protein half-life on chromatin, leading to significantly improved CRISPa and CRISPRi efficacy. Cas9 binding to Keap1 also inactivate Keap1 function via competing with Keap1 substrates or binding partners, while engineered Cas9 mutants showed less perturbation. Thus, our study reveals a mammalian specific Cas9 regulation and provides new Cas9 designs not only with enhanced gene regulatory capacity but also with minimal effects on disrupting endogenous Keap1 signaling.
2025-01-20 | PXD050935 | Pride
Project description:Next Generation Sequencing data of HAP1 cells after genome editing with AsCas12a or SpCas9