Name: determining the role of maternally-expressed genes in early development with maternal crispants
Uploaded: 2021-12-21T14:00:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Determining the Role of Maternally-Expressed Genes in Early Development with Maternal Crispants at JoVE.com

We thank past and current Pelegri lab animal husbandry staff members for their care of the aquatic facility. We are also grateful for the comments and insight on the manuscript by Ryan Trevena and Diane Hanson. Funding was provided by NIH grant to F.P. (GM065303)

In studies leading to the development of this protocol, all zebrafish housing and experiments were approved by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC-M005268-R2).
1. Synthesis of Guide RNAs
NOTE: Zygotic crispants have been created using a single guide RNA or multiplexing multiple guide RNAs to a single target5,6,7</s...

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The protocol presented in this manuscript allows for the identification and primary molecular characterization of a maternal-effect phenotype in a single generation instead of the multiple generations required for both forward and reverse genetic techniques. Currently, the role of many maternally expressed genes is unknown. This lack of knowledge is partly due to the extra generation required to visualize a phenotype when identifying maternal-effect genes. In the past, the rapid identification of maternal-effect genes in...

A pool of maternally deposited products (e.g., RNAs, proteins, and other biomolecules) is necessary for all early cellular processes until the embryo&#39;s zygotic genome is activated1. The premature depletion of these products from the oocyte is typically embryonic lethal. Despite the importance of these genes in development, the role of many maternally-expressed genes is currently unknown. Advancement in gene-editing technology in zebrafish, such as CRISPR-Cas9, enables the targeting of maternally-expressed genes2,3,4. However, the identification of a maternal-effect phenotype requires an extra generation when compared to a zygotic phenotype, thus requiring more resources. Recently, the biallelic editing capability of CRISPR-Cas9 has been used to screen for embryonic phenotypes in somatic tissues of injected (F0) embryos, known as &#34;crispants&#34;5,6,7,8,9,10. The crispant technique permits resource-efficient screening of candidate genes in somatic cells, facilitating understanding of specific aspects in development. The protocol described in this paper allows for the identification of maternal-effect phenotypes, or &#34;maternal crispants,&#34; in a single generation11. This scheme is attainable by multiplexing guide RNAs to a single gene and promoting biallelic editing events in the germline. These maternal crispant embryos can be identified by gross morphological phenotypes and undergo primary characterization, such as labeling for cell boundaries and DNA patterning11. Combined analysis of the observable phenotype and basic molecular characterization of the induced INDELs allows for the prediction of the targeted gene&#39;s role in early development.
In zebrafish, during the first 24 h post-fertilization (hpf), a small group of cells develops into the primordial germ cells, a precursor to the germline12,13,14,15. In clutches laid by F0 females, the proportion of maternal crispant embryos recovered depends on how many germ cells contain a biallelic editing event in the targeted gene. In general, the earlier the editing event occurs in the embryo, the higher the probability of CRISPR-Cas9 mutations being observed in the germline. In most cases, the phenotypes of maternal crispant embryos come from the loss of function in the two maternal alleles present in the developing oocyte. As the oocyte finishes meiosis, one of the maternal alleles is extruded from the embryo via the polar body, while the other allele becomes incorporated into the maternal pronucleus. The sequencing of multiple maternal crispant haploids will represent a mixture of the mutations (insertions and/or deletions (INDELs)) present in the germline that contribute to the phenotype11.
The following protocol describes the necessary steps to create CRISPR-Cas9 mutations in maternal-effect genes and identify the corresponding phenotype using a maternal crispant approach (Figure 1). Section one will explain how to effectively design and create guide RNAs, while sections two and three contain critical steps for creating maternal crispants by microinjection. After injecting the CRISPR-Cas9 mixture, injected embryos are screened for somatic edits via PCR (section four). Once the injected F0 embryos develop and reach sexual maturity, the F0 females are crossed to wild-type males, and their offspring are screened for maternal-effect phenotypes (section five). Section six includes instructions on making maternal crispant haploids that can be combined with Sanger sequencing to identify the CRISPR-Cas9-induced INDELs. In addition, the Discussion contains modifications that can be made to the protocol to increase the sensitivity and power of this method.

determining the role of maternally-expressed genes in early development with maternal crispants

Early development depends on a pool of maternal factors incorporated into the mature oocyte during oogenesis that perform all cellular functions necessary for development until zygotic genome activation. Typically, genetic targeting of these maternal factors requires an additional generation to identify maternal-effect phenotypes, hindering the ability to determine the role of maternally-expressed genes during development. The discovery of the biallelic editing capabilities of CRISPR-Cas9 has allowed screening of embryonic phenotypes in somatic tissues of injected embryos or "crispants," augmenting the understanding of the role zygotically-expressed genes play in developmental programs. This article describes a protocol that is an extension of the crispant method. In this method, the biallelic editing of germ cells allows for the isolation of a maternal-effect phenotype in a single generation, or "maternal crispants." Multiplexing guide RNAs to a single target promotes the efficient production of maternal crispants, while sequence analysis of maternal crispant haploids provides a simple method to corroborate genetic lesions that produce a maternal-effect phenotype. The use of maternal crispants supports the rapid identification of essential maternally-expressed genes, thus facilitating the understanding of early development.

The experimental approach described in this protocol allows for the identification of maternal effect phenotypes in a rapid, resource-efficient manner (Figure 1).
Generating maternal crispants: 
When designing the four guide RNAs to target a single candidate maternal-effect gene, special consideration should be given to where the guide RNAs will bind to DNA. In general, they should all be clustered together with minimal to no overlapping regi...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Determining the Role of Maternally-Expressed Genes in Early Development with Maternal Crispants at JoVE.com

Determining the Role of Maternally-Expressed Genes in Early Development with Maternal Crispants

Early development is dependent on maternally-inherited products, and the role of many of these products is currently unknown. Herein, we described a protocol that uses CRISPR-Cas9 to identify maternal-effect phenotypes in a single generation.

Early development depends on a pool of maternal factors incorporated into the mature oocyte during oogenesis that perform all cellular functions necessary ...

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