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Hereditas(Beijing) ›› 2023, Vol. 45 ›› Issue (2): 165-175.doi: 10.16288/j.yczz.22-395

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The protocol of tagging endogenous proteins with fluorescent tags using CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing

Zhongsheng Wu1,2(), Yu Gao1,2(), Yongtao Du1,2(), Song Dang1, Kangmin He1,2()   

  1. 1. State Key Laboratory of Molecular Developmental Biology, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
    2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
  • Received:2022-12-02 Revised:2023-01-06 Online:2023-02-20 Published:2023-01-09
  • Contact: He Kangmin E-mail:zswu@genetics.ac.cn;gaoyu@genetics.ac.cn;duyongtao@genetics.ac.cn;kmhe@genetics.ac.cn
  • Supported by:
    the National Natural Science Foundation of China(91957106);the National Natural Science Foundation of China(31970659);the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China(2021YFA0804802);the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China(2022YFA1304500)

Abstract:

The currently widely used CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing technology enables the editing of target genes (knock-out or knock-in) with high accuracy and efficiency. Guided by the small guide RNA, the Cas9 nuclease induces a DNA double-strand break at the targeted genomic locus. The DNA double-strand break can be repaired by the homology-directed repair pathway in the presence of a repair template. With the repair template containing the coding sequence of a fluorescent tag, the targeted gene can be inserted with the sequence of a fluorescent tag at the designed position. The genome editing mediated labeling of endogenous proteins with fluorescent tags avoids the potential artifacts caused by gene overexpression and substantially improves the reproductivity of imaging experiments. This protocol focuses on creating mammalian cell lines with endogenous proteins tagged with fluorescent proteins or self-labeling protein tags using CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing.

Key words: CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing, live cell, endogenous protein, fluorescent protein, self-labeling protein tag