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Multicenter Study
. 2019 Aug 26;20(1):171.
doi: 10.1186/s13059-019-1776-2.

Reproducibility of CRISPR-Cas9 methods for generation of conditional mouse alleles: a multi-center evaluation

Channabasavaiah B Gurumurthy  1   2 Aidan R O'Brien  3   4 Rolen M Quadros  5 John Adams Jr  6 Pilar Alcaide  7 Shinya Ayabe  8 Johnathan Ballard  6 Surinder K Batra  9 Marie-Claude Beauchamp  10 Kathleen A Becker  11 Guillaume Bernas  12 David Brough  13 Francisco Carrillo-Salinas  7 Wesley Chan  10 Hanying Chen  14 Ruby Dawson  15 Victoria DeMambro  11 Jinke D'Hont  16   17 Katharine M Dibb  18 James D Eudy  19 Lin Gan  20 Jing Gao  4 Amy Gonzales  6 Anyonya R Guntur  11 Huiping Guo  6 Donald W Harms  5 Anne Harrington  11 Kathryn E Hentges  21 Neil Humphreys  22 Shiho Imai  23 Hideshi Ishii  24 Mizuho Iwama  8 Eric Jonasch  25 Michelle Karolak  11 Bernard Keavney  26 Nay-Chi Khin  4 Masamitsu Konno  27 Yuko Kotani  28 Yayoi Kunihiro  28 Imayavaramban Lakshmanan  9 Catherine Larochelle  29 Catherine B Lawrence  13 Lin Li  30 Volkhard Lindner  11 Xian-De Liu  25 Gloria Lopez-Castejon  31 Andrew Loudon  32 Jenna Lowe  4 Loydie A Jerome-Majewska  10 Taiji Matsusaka  23 Hiromi Miura  33   34 Yoshiki Miyasaka  28 Benjamin Morpurgo  6 Katherine Motyl  11 Yo-Ichi Nabeshima  35 Koji Nakade  8 Toshiaki Nakashiba  8 Kenichi Nakashima  8 Yuichi Obata  8 Sanae Ogiwara  36 Mariette Ouellet  12 Leif Oxburgh  11   37 Sandra Piltz  15 Ilka Pinz  11 Moorthy P Ponnusamy  9 David Ray  38 Ronald J Redder  19 Clifford J Rosen  11 Nikki Ross  4 Mark T Ruhe  39 Larisa Ryzhova  11 Ane M Salvador  7 Sabrina Shameen Alam  10 Radislav Sedlacek  40 Karan Sharma  41 Chad Smith  25 Katrien Staes  16   17 Lora Starrs  4 Fumihiro Sugiyama  42 Satoru Takahashi  42 Tomohiro Tanaka  43 Andrew W Trafford  18 Yoshihiro Uno  28 Leen Vanhoutte  16   17 Frederique Vanrockeghem  16   17 Brandon J Willis  39 Christian S Wright  44 Yuko Yamauchi  28 Xin Yi  44 Kazuto Yoshimi  28 Xuesong Zhang  25 Yu Zhang  30 Masato Ohtsuka  33   34 Satyabrata Das  45 Daniel J Garry  46   47 Tino Hochepied  16   17 Paul Thomas  15 Jan Parker-Thornburg  25 Antony D Adamson  22 Atsushi Yoshiki  8 Jean-Francois Schmouth  12 Andrei Golovko  6 William R Thompson  44 K C Kent Lloyd  39   47 Joshua A Wood  39 Mitra Cowan  48 Tomoji Mashimo  28 Seiya Mizuno  42 Hao Zhu  30 Petr Kasparek  40 Lucy Liaw  11 Joseph M Miano  20 Gaetan Burgio  49
Affiliations
Multicenter Study

Reproducibility of CRISPR-Cas9 methods for generation of conditional mouse alleles: a multi-center evaluation

Channabasavaiah B Gurumurthy et al. Genome Biol. .

Abstract

Background: CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology has facilitated the generation of knockout mice, providing an alternative to cumbersome and time-consuming traditional embryonic stem cell-based methods. An earlier study reported up to 16% efficiency in generating conditional knockout (cKO or floxed) alleles by microinjection of 2 single guide RNAs (sgRNA) and 2 single-stranded oligonucleotides as donors (referred herein as "two-donor floxing" method).

Results: We re-evaluate the two-donor method from a consortium of 20 laboratories across the world. The dataset constitutes 56 genetic loci, 17,887 zygotes, and 1718 live-born mice, of which only 15 (0.87%) mice contain cKO alleles. We subject the dataset to statistical analyses and a machine learning algorithm, which reveals that none of the factors analyzed was predictive for the success of this method. We test some of the newer methods that use one-donor DNA on 18 loci for which the two-donor approach failed to produce cKO alleles. We find that the one-donor methods are 10- to 20-fold more efficient than the two-donor approach.

Conclusion: We propose that the two-donor method lacks efficiency because it relies on two simultaneous recombination events in cis, an outcome that is dwarfed by pervasive accompanying undesired editing events. The methods that use one-donor DNA are fairly efficient as they rely on only one recombination event, and the probability of correct insertion of the donor cassette without unanticipated mutational events is much higher. Therefore, one-donor methods offer higher efficiencies for the routine generation of cKO animal models.

Keywords: CRISPR-Cas9; Conditional knockout mouse; Floxed allele; Homology-directed repair; Long single-stranded DNA; Machine learning; Mouse; Oligonucleotide; Reproducibility; Transgenesis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Schematic of two-donor floxing method of creating cKO alleles. a Wild-type locus showing exons 3, 4, and 5 of a hypothetical gene where exon 4 is chosen as a target exon for inserting LoxP sites. Guides 1 and 2 target introns 3 and 4, respectively. b CRISPR components for the two-donor floxing method Cas9 source. c Delivery method of CRISPR components into zygotes (microinjection or electroporation). d The cKO allele showing target exon (#4) with flanking LoxP sites
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Quantitative assessment of the success of the two-donor floxing method. a Method of zygote injections (pronuclear, cytoplasmic, or both) for delivery of the CRISPR reagents used by reporting centers. Numbers indicate the percentage of the total zygotes microinjected or electroporated. b Form of the CRISPR reagents (mRNA, protein, or plasmid) delivered to the zygotes. Numbers indicate percentages. c Number of successfully edited alleles and correct LoxP insertions out of the total number of live-born pups from microinjected and transferred zygotes. Numbers indicate absolute numbers. d Types of editing observed among the live-born pups genotyped from a subsample from 25 loci. Numbers indicate absolute values
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Desired and undesired outcomes of the two-donor floxing method. a-f Wild-type locus showing exons 3, 4, and 5 of a hypothetical gene where exon 4 is chosen as a target exon for inserting LoxP sites. a Desired outcome showing a floxed allele. Overall occurrence was < 1%. bf Various undesired outcomes including only one LoxP site insertion (b), only indels created at one or both sites (c), combination of LoxP insertion and indels (d), deletion between the two cleavage sites (e), and no indel or no insertion events (f)

Comment in

  • Response to "Reproducibility of CRISPR-Cas9 methods for generation of conditional mouse alleles: a multi-center evaluation".
    Yang H, Wang H, Jaenisch R. Yang H, et al. Genome Biol. 2021 Apr 7;22(1):98. doi: 10.1186/s13059-021-02312-3. Genome Biol. 2021. PMID: 33827646 Free PMC article. No abstract available.
  • Response to correspondence on "Reproducibility of CRISPR-Cas9 methods for generation of conditional mouse alleles: a multi-center evaluation".
    Gurumurthy CB, O'Brien AR, Quadros RM, Adams J Jr, Alcaide P, Ayabe S, Ballard J, Batra SK, Beauchamp MC, Becker KA, Bernas G, Brough D, Carrillo-Salinas F, Chan W, Chen H, Dawson R, DeMambro V, D'Hont J, Dibb K, Eudy JD, Gan L, Gao J, Gonzales A, Guntur A, Guo H, Harms DW, Harrington A, Hentges KE, Humphreys N, Imai S, Ishii H, Iwama M, Jonasch E, Karolak M, Keavney B, Khin NC, Konno M, Kotani Y, Kunihiro Y, Lakshmanan I, Larochelle C, Lawrence CB, Li L, Lindner V, Liu XD, Lopez-Castejon G, Loudon A, Lowe J, Jerome-Majeweska L, Matsusaka T, Miura H, Miyasaka Y, Morpurgo B, Motyl K, Nabeshima YI, Nakade K, Nakashiba T, Nakashima K, Obata Y, Ogiwara S, Ouellet M, Oxburgh L, Piltz S, Pinz I, Ponnusamy MP, Ray D, Redder RJ, Rosen CJ, Ross N, Ruhe MT, Ryzhova L, Salvador AM, Alam SS, Sedlacek R, Sharma K, Smith C, Staes K, Starrs L, Sugiyama F, Takahashi S, Tanaka T, Trafford A, Uno Y, Vanhoutte L, Vanrockeghem F, Willis BJ, Wright CS, Yamauchi Y, Yi X, Yoshimi K, Zhang X, Zhang Y, Ohtsuka M, Das S, Garry DJ, Hochepied T, Thomas P, Parker-Thornburg J, Adamson AD, Yoshiki A, Schmouth JF, Golovko A, Thompson WR, Lloyd KCK, Wood JA, Cowan M, Mashimo T, Mizuno S, Zhu H, Kasparek P, Liaw L… See abstract for full author list ➔ Gurumurthy CB, et al. Genome Biol. 2021 Apr 7;22(1):99. doi: 10.1186/s13059-021-02320-3. Genome Biol. 2021. PMID: 33827648 Free PMC article. No abstract available.

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