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Hereditas(Beijing) ›› 2024, Vol. 46 ›› Issue (9): 716-726.doi: 10.16288/j.yczz.24-124

• Research Article • Previous Articles     Next Articles

CRISPR/Gal4BD-Cas donor adapting systems based on miniaturized Cas proteins for improved gene editing

Sen Yang(), Baoxia Ma, Hongrun Qian, Jieyu Cui, Xiaojun Zhang, Lida Li, Zehui Wei, Zhiying Zhang, Jiangang Wang(), Kun Xu()   

  1. College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 71200, China
  • Received:2024-06-28 Revised:2024-08-24 Online:2024-08-26 Published:2024-08-26
  • Contact: Jiangang Wang, Kun Xu E-mail:yangsen@nwafu.edu.cn;wangjiangang@126.com;xukunas@nwafu.edu.cn
  • Supported by:
    Biological Breeding-Major Projects(2023ZD04074);Biological Breeding-Major Projects(2023ZD04051)

Abstract:

Targeted precise point editing and knock-in can be achieved by homology-directed repair(HDR) based gene editing strategies in mammalian cells. However, the inefficiency of HDR strategies seriously restricts their application in precision medicine and molecular design breeding. In view of the problem that exogenous donor DNA cannot be efficiently recruited autonomously at double-stranded breaks(DSBs) when using HDR strategies for gene editing, the concept of donor adapting system(DAS) was proposed and the CRISPR/Cas9-Gal4BD DAS was developed previously. Due to the large size of SpCas9 protein, its fusion with the Gal4BD adaptor is inconvenient for protein expression, virus vector packaging and in vivo delivery. In this study, two novel CRISPR/Gal4BD-SlugCas9 and CRISPR/Gal4BD-AsCas12a DASs were further developed, using two miniaturized Cas proteins, namely SlugCas9-HF derived from Staphylococcus lugdunensis and AsCas12a derived from Acidaminococcus sp. Firstly, the SSA reporter assay was used to assess the targeting activity of different Cas-Gal4BD fusions, and the results showed that the fusion of Gal4BD with SlugCas9 and AsCas12a N-terminals had minimal distraction on their activities. Secondly, the HDR efficiency reporter assay was conducted for the functional verification of the two DASs and the corresponding donor patterns were optimized simultaneously. The results demonstrated that the fusion of the Gal4BD adaptor binding sequence at the 5′-end of intent dsDNA template (BS-dsDNA) was better for the CRISPR/Gal4BD-AsCas12a DAS, while for the CRISPR/Gal4BD-SlugCas9 DAS, the dsDNA-BS donor pattern was recommended. Finally, CRISPR/Gal4BD-SlugCas9 DAS was used to achieve gene editing efficiency of 24%, 37% and 31% respectively for EMX1, NUDT5 and AAVS1 gene loci in HEK293T cells, which was significantly increased compared with the controls. In conclusion, this study provides a reference for the subsequent optimization of the donor adapting systems, and expands the gene editing technical toolbox for the researches on animal molecular design breeding.

Key words: gene editing, homology-directed repair, donor adapting, miniaturized Cas proteins, adaptor