Functional analysis of Bombyx Wnt1 during embryogenesis using the CRISPR/Cas9 system

Recently established, custom-designed nuclease technologies such as the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)-associated system provide attractive genome editing tools. Targeted gene mutagenesis using the CRISPR/Cas9 system has been achieved in several orders of insects. However, outside of studies on Drosophila melanogaster and the lepidopteron model insect Bombyx mori, little success has been reported, which is largely due to a lack of effective genetic manipulation tools that can be used in other insect orders. To create a simple and effective method of gene knockout analysis, especially for dissecting gene functioning during insect embryogenesis, we performed a functional analysis of the Bombyx Wnt1 (BmWnt1) gene using Cas9/sgRNA-mediated gene mutagenesis. The Wnt1 gene is required for embryonic patterning in various organisms, and its crucial roles during embryogenesis have been demonstrated in several insect orders. Direct injection of Cas9 mRNA and BmWnt1-specific sgRNA into Bombyx embryos induced a typical Wnt-deficient phenotype: injected embryos could not hatch and exhibited severe defects in body segmentation and pigmentation in a dose-dependent manner. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) analysis revealed that Hox genes were down-regulated after BmWnt1 depletion. Furthermore, large deletion, up to 18 Kb, ware generated. The current study demonstrates that using the CRISPR/Cas9 system is a promising approach to achieve targeted gene mutagenesis during insect embryogenesis.     

CRISPR/Cas9技术在微生物研究中的应用进展

CRISPR(Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats)/Cas(CRISPR associated proteins)系统是在细菌和古生菌中发现的一种RNA指导的降解入侵病毒或质粒DNA的适应性免疫系统。由II型CRISPR/Cas系统改造而成的CRISPR/Cas9技术已经被开发成一种强大的基因组编辑和表达调控工具,并且广泛应用于基因功能研究、代谢工程和合成生物学等领域。本文从CRISPR/Cas9系统的发现过程、分类、作用原理、在微生物研究中的应用进展等方面进行总结,并展望了该技术的应用前景。     

The advancements,challenges, and future implications of the CRISPR/Cas9 system in swine research

Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats(CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated protein 9(CRISPR/Cas9) genome editing technology has dramatically influenced swine research by enabling the production of high-quality disease-resistant pig breeds, thus improving yields. In addition, CRISPR/Cas9 has been used extensively in pigs as one of the tools in biomedical research. In this review, we present the advancements of the CRISPR/Cas9 system in swine research, such as animal breeding, vaccine development, xenotransplantation, and disease modeling. We also highlight the current challenges and some potential applications of the CRISPR/Cas9 technologies.     

Study on the function of Helicoverpa armigera Wnt1 gene using CRISPR/Cas9 system

The Wnt signaling pathway, as a highly conserved signaling pathway in evolution, plays an important role in many biological processes. The research of Wnt signaling pathway through gene editing has been implemented in a variety of organisms. Among the various genome editing tools available for functional genomic research, CRISPR is popular because of its ease of use and versatility. Here, we use the CRISPR/Cas9 system to knock out the HaWnt1 gene of the important agricultural pest Helicoverpa armigera to explore the impacts on embryo development. Direct injection of Cas9 protein and Wnt1-specific single guide RNA (sgRNA) into H. armigera embryos successfully induced Wnt1 gene deletion mutants, which showed high lethality, abnormal segmentation, defected appendages and defected pigmentation. qRT-PCR analysis revealed that the deletion of Wnt1 gene affected the expression of several genes, which were closely related to the growth and development of insects. Our results indicate that HaWnt1 signaling pathway is essential for embryonic development of H. armigera. The study of the function of HaWnt1 gene not only lays the foundation for the study of the somatic development pattern of H. armigera, but also provides a candidate gene for genetic control of H. armigera.     

CRISPR/Cas9基因组编辑技术的研究进展及其应用

随着测序技术的不断进步,获得了越来越多物种的全基因组序列。面对这些海量的基因组数据,基因定点编辑技术是高效捕获目标基因、迅速获得基因功能和应用信息的重要研究手段。CRISPR/Cas9是目前最有效的一种基因定点编辑技术。CRISPR/Cas9系统(clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/CRISPR-associated)是广泛存在于细菌及古生菌中的,由细菌体长期进化而形成,能够降解入侵病毒或噬菌体DNA的适应性免疫系统。因此,对CRISPR/Cas9系统的发展、应用,以其在相关研究中的应用前景进行阐述显得尤为必要。     

First report on CRISPR/Cas9 mediated editing of the eye colour gene,Tryptophan 2, 3-dioxygenase in egg plant shoot and fruit borer Leucinodes orbonalis Guenée (Lepidoptera: Crambidae)

Overuse of synthetic chemicals over a long period of time has not only resulted in control failures but also enormous ecological damage. This necessitates developing eco-friendly, effective alternatives for sustainable pest management. In this regard, potential of CRISPR/Cas9 mediated genome editing to introduce site specific mutations that mostly resulting in loss of function has been successfully demonstrated in wide varieties of organisms including insects. This has opened a new avenue to design and implement futuristic pest management strategies like precision guided sterile insect technique (pgSIT) for an area wide suppression. This requires validation of target genes employing Ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complex containing sgRNA and Cas9 protein before undertaking transgenesis for achieving pgSIT. In the present study, we have for the first time, supporting CRISPR/Cas9 mediated editing of the eye colour gene, Tryptophan 2, 3-dioxygenase of the eggplant shoot and fruit borer, Leucinodes orbonalis using RNP complex. The mutant moths of both sexes exhibited reddish brown eyed phenotype. Having established an RNP mediated editing system in L. orbonalis, the key genes involved in sex determination and spermatogenesis will be validated for developing a pgSIT system for L. orbonalis.     

Functional characterization of SlitPBP3 in Spodoptera litura by CRISPR/Cas9 mediated genome editing

Functional gene analysis by using genome editing techniques is limited only in few model insects. Here, we reported an efficient and heritable gene mutagenesis analysis in an important lepidopteran pest, Spodoptera litura, using the CRISPR/Cas9 system. By using this system, we successfully obtained the homozygous S. litura strain by targeting the pheromone binding protein 3 gene (SlitPBP3), which allowed us to elucidate the role of this gene in the olfaction of the female sex pheromones. By co-injection of Cas9 mRNA and sgRNA into S. litura eggs, highly efficient chimera mutation in SlitPBP3 loci was detected both in injected eggs (39.1%) and in the resulting individual moths (87.5%). We used the mutant moths as parents to obtain the G1 offspring and the homozygous mutant strain in G2. The function of SlitPBP3 was explored by Electroantennogram (EAG) recordings with a homozygous mutant strain. The result showed that the EAG responses were significantly decreased in mutant males than in control males when treated with the major sex pheromone component (Z9,E11-14:Ac) and a minor component (Z9-14:Ac) at higher dosages. The results demonstrate that s SlitPBP3 gene plays a minor role in the perception of the female sex pheromones. Furthermore, our study provides a useful methodology with the CRISPR/Cas9 system for gene in vivo functional study, particular for lepidopteran species in which the RNAi approach is not efficient.     

CRISPR/Cas9-based heritable targeted mutagenesis in Thermobia domestica: A genetic tool in an apterygote development model of wing evolution

Despite previous developmental studies on basally branching wingless insects and crustaceans, the evolutionary origin of insect wings remains controversial. Knowledge regarding genetic regulation of tissues hypothesized to have given rise to wings would help to elucidate how ancestral development changed to allow the evolution of true wings. However, genetic tools available for basally branching wingless species are limited. The firebrat Thermobia domestica is an apterygote species, phylogenetically related to winged insects. T. domestica presents a suitable morphology to investigate the origin of wings, as it forms the tergal paranotum, from which wings are hypothesized to have originated. Here we report the first successful CRISPR/Cas9-based germline genome editing in T. domestica. We provide a technological platform to understand the development of tissues hypothesized to have given rise to wings in an insect with a pre-wing evolution body plan.     

DNA剪刀——TALEN和CRISPR/Cas

对基因组中特定位点进行修饰的实验手段称为基因组编辑。它在研究基因的功能和基因修复以及细胞替代治疗上有广泛的应用前景。该文将回顾基因组编辑技术的最新进展和应用,着重介绍两种最新出现的序列特异核酸酶——TALEN和CRISPR／Cas在基因组编辑技术中的应用。     

The CRISPR/Cas9 system produces specific and homozygous targeted gene editing in rice in one generation

The CRISPR/Cas9 system has been demonstrated to efficiently induce targeted gene editing in a variety of organisms including plants. Recent work showed that CRISPR/Cas9‐induced gene mutations in Arabidopsis were mostly somatic mutations in the early generation, although some mutations could be stably inherited in later generations. However, it remains unclear whether this system will work similarly in crops such as rice. In this study, we tested in two rice subspecies 11 target genes for their amenability to CRISPR/Cas9‐induced editing and determined the patterns, specificity and heritability of the gene modifications. Analysis of the genotypes and frequency of edited genes in the first generation of transformed plants (T0) showed that the CRISPR/Cas9 system was highly efficient in rice, with target genes edited in nearly half of the transformed embryogenic cells before their first cell division. Homozygotes of edited target genes were readily found in T0 plants. The gene mutations were passed to the next generation (T1) following classic Mendelian law, without any detectable new mutation or reversion. Even with extensive searches including whole genome resequencing, we could not find any evidence of large‐scale off‐targeting in rice for any of the many targets tested in this study. By specifically sequencing the putative off‐target sites of a large number of T0 plants, low‐frequency mutations were found in only one off‐target site where the sequence had 1‐bp difference from the intended target. Overall, the data in this study point to the CRISPR/Cas9 system being a powerful tool in crop genome engineering.     

CRISPR/Cas基因编辑系统研究进展

规律性成簇间隔的短回文重复序列(clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats, CRISPR)的发现和工程技术对生命科学的发展带来巨大的推动作用。RNA引导的Cas(CRISPR-associated)酶已被用作操纵细胞、动物和植物基因组的工具。这加速了基础研究的步伐,并使其在临床和农业上的应用成为可能。CRISPR/Cas9对在实验系统中进行的功能基因组学的研究有重大影响。CRISPR/Cas9系统自发现以来,因其操作便捷、成本低、特异性高、可同时打靶任意数量基因等优点而被广泛应用。经过近几年研究发现,Cas9变异体(Cas12a、Cas13)有利于突破和克服CRISPR/Cas9应用中的一些限制,Cas12a极大地扩展了基因编辑靶位点的选择范围,同时其介导的多基因编辑具有明显的优势;Cas13等蛋白能特异性结合和编辑RNA,开启了转录组研究的新篇章。本文主要就CRISPR/Cas的研究背景以及Cas9、Cas12a和Cas13系统研究进展和应用进行综述,并对其应用前景和发展方向进行了展望。     

灰茶尺蠖核型多角体病毒对灰茶尺蠖的致病性研究

采取室内毒力测定和田间防效调查相结合的方法,对灰茶尺蠖核型多角体病毒(Ectropis grisescensnucleopolyhedrovir-us)的致病力进行了研究。毒力测定结果表明,该病毒对2龄灰茶尺蠖幼虫的剂量对数-死亡机率值回归方程为y=-0.8774 0.9498x,LC50=1.5417×106PIB.mL-1;田间用浓度为1×107、1.5×107和2×107PIB.mL-1的EgNPV防治灰茶尺蠖,防效分别达58.81%、89.51%和94.81%。     

Efficient gene editing in adult mouse livers via adenoviral delivery of CRISPR/Cas9

We developed an adenovirus-based CRISPR/Cas9 system for gene editing in vivo. In the liver, we demonstrated that the system could reach the level of tissue-specific gene knockout, resulting in phenotypic changes. Given the wide spectrum of cell types susceptible to adenoviral infection, and the fact that adenoviral genome rarely integrates into its host cell genome, we believe the adenovirus-based CRISPR/Cas9 system will find applications in a variety of experimental settings.     

Assessment of Cas12a‐mediated gene editing efficiency in plants

The CRISPR/Cas12a editing system opens new possibilities for plant genome engineering. To obtain a comparative assessment of RNA‐guided endonuclease (RGEN) types in plants, we adapted the CRISPR/Cas12a system to the GoldenBraid (GB) modular cloning platform and compared the efficiency of Acidaminococcus (As) and Lachnospiraceae (Lb) Cas12a variants with the previously described GB‐assembled Streptococcus pyogenes Cas9 (SpCas9) constructs in eight Nicotiana benthamiana loci using transient expression. All three nucleases showed drastic target‐dependent differences in efficiency, with LbCas12 producing higher mutagenesis rates in five of the eight loci assayed, as estimated with the T7E1 endonuclease assay. Attempts to engineer crRNA direct repeat (DR) had little effect improving on‐target efficiency for AsCas12a and resulted deleterious in the case of LbCas12a. To complete the assessment of Cas12a activity, we carried out genome editing experiments in three different model plants, namely N. benthamiana, Solanum lycopersicum and Arabidopsis thaliana. For the latter, we also resequenced Cas12a‐free segregating T2 lines to assess possible off‐target effects. Our results showed that the mutagenesis footprint of Cas12a is enriched in deletions of ?10 to ?2 nucleotides and included in some instances complex rearrangements in the surroundings of the target sites. We found no evidence of off‐target mutations neither in related sequences nor somewhere else in the genome. Collectively, this study shows that LbCas12a is a viable alternative to SpCas9 for plant genome engineering.     

毕赤酵母基因编辑技术研究进展

巴斯德毕赤酵母是一种重要的蛋白表达系统,基因编辑技术作为代谢工程的基本工具,对于毕赤酵母的代谢改造十分重要。近十年基因编辑技术发展迅速,除传统的同源重组和Cre/loxP重组外,相继出现了许多新的基因编辑技术,例如ZFN、TALEN和CRISPR/Cas9等,这些技术的出现使基因编辑更加简便高效。本文对毕赤酵母中传统和新型基因编辑技术的原理应用和研究进展进行了简要综述,并结合相关领域的发展对毕赤酵母基因编辑技术的发展进行了展望。     

快速构建多重sgRNA载体利用CRISPR/Cas9技术敲除拟南芥IAA2基因

IAA2(Indole Acetic Acid 2)是拟南芥Aux/IAA生长素响应基因大家族中的一员,目前还没有它的突变体的报道,阻碍了对其功能和作用机制的深入研究。在CRISPR/Cas9基因组编辑技术中,1个sgRNA只能靶向基因的1个位点,有时基因敲除的效率并不高。为了提高敲除效率,本文在Golden-Gate克隆技术的基础上,通过两轮PCR扩增,将每3个sgRNA串联到同1个入门载体中,再将入门载体与含Cas9表达框的目标载体LR反应,获得最终的表达载体。结果表明,设计的6个sgRNA有4个发挥了作用,产生了碱基插入突变和大片段缺失突变等多种可遗传的突变。与单个sgRNA相比,多重sgRNA的基因敲除效率高、种系突变多;与其他构建多重sgRNA载体的方法相比,本方法具有快速、高效等优点。本文所得到的5个突变体为后续的IAA2功能研究提供了良好的材料。