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Method Article
The genotyping technique described here, which couples fluorescent polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to capillary gel electrophoresis, allows for high-throughput genotyping of nuclease-mediated knockout clones. It circumvents limitations faced by other genotyping techniques and is more cost effective than sequencing methods.
The development of programmable genome-editing tools has facilitated the use of reverse genetics to understand the roles specific genomic sequences play in the functioning of cells and whole organisms. This cause has been tremendously aided by the recent introduction of the CRISPR/Cas9 system-a versatile tool that allows researchers to manipulate the genome and transcriptome in order to, among other things, knock out, knock down, or knock in genes in a targeted manner. For the purpose of knocking out a gene, CRISPR/Cas9-mediated double-strand breaks recruit the non-homologous end-joining DNA repair pathway to introduce the frameshift-causing insertion or deletion of nucleotides at the break site. However, an individual guide RNA may cause undesirable off-target effects, and to rule these out, the use of multiple guide RNAs is necessary. This multiplicity of targets also means that a high-volume screening of clones is required, which in turn begs the use of an efficient high-throughput technique to genotype the knockout clones. Current genotyping techniques either suffer from inherent limitations or incur high cost, hence rendering them unsuitable for high-throughput purposes. Here, we detail the protocol for using fluorescent PCR, which uses genomic DNA from crude cell lysate as a template, and then resolving the PCR fragments via capillary gel electrophoresis. This technique is accurate enough to differentiate one base-pair difference between fragments and hence is adequate in indicating the presence or absence of a frameshift in the coding sequence of the targeted gene. This precise knowledge effectively precludes the need for a confirmatory sequencing step and allows users to save time and cost in the process. Moreover, this technique has proven to be versatile in genotyping various mammalian cells of various tissue origins targeted by guide RNAs against numerous genes, as shown here and elsewhere.
Reverse genetic approaches have allowed scientists to elucidate the effects of specific alterations in the genome on the cell or whole organism. For example, the expression of a particular gene can be attenuated by gene knockdown1,2 (partial reduction) or gene knockout3,4 (complete ablation) in order to determine the effect that this has on the function of the cell or on the development of the organism.
Gene knockout experiments have become easier since the introduction of sequence-specific programmable nucleases, such as zinc-finger nucleases (ZFNs) and transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs). However, the relatively recent characterization of the clustered regularly interspersed short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)/Cas9 system has made it extremely easy for any laboratory around the world to perform gene knockout experiments. In essence, the CRISPR/Cas9 system consists of two essential components-a single guide RNA (sgRNA), which recognizes and binds via base complementarity to a specific sequence in the genome, and an endonuclease called Cas9. The aftermath of the specific binding and action of the sgRNA-Cas9 complex on genomic DNA is the double-strand cleavage of DNA. This, in turn, triggers the DNA damage response mechanism in the cell, which is subsequently repaired via the non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ) or homologous recombination (HR) pathways. Since the NHEJ repair mechanism (but not the HR mechanism) often results in the random insertion or deletion of nucleotides at the site of repair, resulting in insertion/deletion (indel) mutations, it may cause the reading frame of an exon to shift. This may then result in the knockout of the gene due to premature termination of translation and nonsense-mediated decay5,6,7.
Despite the convenience afforded by the introduction of the CRISPR/Cas9 system in knocking out a gene, the genotyping of clones of targeted cells remains a bottleneck, especially in a high-throughput setting8,9. Existing techniques either suffer major inherent limitations or are financially costly. For example, the SURVEYOR or T7E1 assay, which is an enzymatic assay that detects mismatches in DNA duplexes10, is not able to distinguish between wildtype clones and homozygous mutants (clones whose alleles are mutated identically), since these clones have identical alleles and thus do not present mismatches in their DNA sequence11. In addition, the use of Sanger sequencing, which is considered the gold standard in genotyping mutant clones, in a high-throughput setup is undesirable due to its high cost. Here, we present a detailed protocol of the fluorescent PCR-capillary gel electrophoresis technique, which can circumvent the limitations of the other existing genotyping techniques and is particularly useful in performing a high-throughput screen of nuclease-mediated knockout clones. This method is technically simple to perform and saves time and cost.
1. Obtaining CRISPR/Cas9-targeted Single-cell Clones
2. Extracting Crude Genomic DNA Using a Direct Lysis Method
3. Performing Fluorescent PCR to Amplify CRISPR/Cas9 Target Regions
4. Preparing Samples for Capillary Gel Electrophoresis
5. Performing Capillary Gel Electrophoresis on a Genetic Analyzer
6. Analysis of the Electropherogram to Determine Base-pair Differences
7. Verification of the Knockout Status of Clones
The fluorescent PCR-capillary gel electrophoresis technique described here is anticipated to be applicable to any targetable region in the genome in virtually any cell line that is amenable to foreign DNA delivery. We have previously demonstrated its application by targeting three genes in a colorectal cancer cell line12. Here, we show its efficacy in genotyping a hepatocellular carcinoma cell line, HEPG2, targeted with a CRISPR/Cas9 construct against the Nucleosom...
The knocking out of a specific gene in a model cell line of choice has become routine for elucidating the role that the gene plays in that particular cellular context. In fact, several genome-wide screens are currently available that use the CRISPR/Cas9 system to target virtually all known human genes in the genome14,15,16. With these large-scale screens (or even small-scale targeting of individual genes of interest), it is impo...
The authors declare that they have no competing financial interests.
The authors would like to thank Ms. Tan Shi Min, Ms. Helen Ong, and Dr. Zhao Yi for helping with the capillary gel electrophoresis experiments. This work was supported by NMRC/IRG grant NMRC/1314/2011 and MOE AcRF Tier 2 Fund grant MOE2011-T2-1-051.
Name | Company | Catalog Number | Comments |
HEPG2 cells | ATCC | HB-8065 | |
HyClone Dulbecco's Modified Eagles Medium (DMEM) | Thermo Fisher Scientific | SH30022.01 | |
HyClone Fetal Bovine Serum | Thermo Fisher Scientific | SV30160.03 | |
pSpCas9(BB)-2A-GFP plasmid | Addgene | PX458 | |
Lipofectamine 2000 | Thermo Fisher Scientific | 11668027 | |
Trypsin-EDTA (0.25%), phenol red | Thermo Fisher Scientific | 25200056 | |
Trypsin-EDTA (0.5%), no phenol red | Thermo Fisher Scientific | 15400054 | |
Penicillin-Streptomycin (10,000 U/mL) | Thermo Fisher Scientific | 15140122 | |
HyClone Water, Molecular Biology Grade | GE Healthcare | SH30538.02 | |
CRISPR sgRNA insert oligonucleotide (sense) | AITbiotech | None | Sequence: 5'-CACCGCTAACCTTTCAGCCTGCCTA-3' |
CRISPR sgRNA insert oligonucleotide (anti-sense) | AITbiotech | None | Sequence: 5'-AAACTAGGCAGGCTGAAAGGTTAGC-3' |
Unlabeled PCR amplification forward primer | AITbiotech | None | Sequence: 5'-CACTAACTCCAATGCTTCAGTTTC-3'; this primer is also used to sequence PCR amplified alleles |
6-FAM-labeled fluorescent PCR forward primer | AITbiotech | None | Sequence: 5'-6-FAM-CACTAACTCCAATGCTTCAGTTTC-3' |
HEX-labeled fluorescent PCR forward primer | AITbiotech | None | Sequence: 5'-HEX-CACTAACTCCAATGCTTCAGTTTC-3' |
Unlabeled PCR reverse primer | AITbiotech | None | Sequence: 5'-CCTCTTCCAAGTCTGCTTATGT-3' |
Taq PCR Core Kit | QIAGEN | 201223 | |
Hi-Di Formamide | Thermo Fisher Scientific | 4311320 | |
GeneScan 500 LIZ Dye Size Standard | Thermo Fisher Scientific | 4322682 | |
MicroAmp Optical 96-Well Reaction Plate | Thermo Fisher Scientific | 4306737 | |
3500xL Genetic Analyzer | Thermo Fisher Scientific | 4405633 | |
3500 Series 2 program | Thermo Fisher Scientific | 4476988 | |
Gene Mapper 5 program | Thermo Fisher Scientific | 4475073 | |
Gentra Puregene Cell Kit | QIAGEN | 1045696 | |
Wizard SV Gel and PCR Clean-Up System | Promega | A9282 | |
NAP1L1 Antibody (N-term) | Abgent | AP1920b | |
Nuclear Matrix Protein p84 antibody [5E10] | GeneTex | GTX70220 | |
Peroxidase AffiniPure Goat Anti-Rabbit IgG | Jackson ImmunoResearch | 111-035-144 | |
Peroxidase AffiniPure Sheep Anti-Mouse IgG | Jackson ImmunoResearch | 515-035-003 |
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