Methods for Establishing Rab Knockout MDCK Cells

Abstract

The Rab family small GTPases are key regulators of intracellular membrane traffic that are conserved in all eukaryotic cells. Rabs are thought to regulate various steps of membrane traffic, including the budding, transport, tethering, docking, and fusion of vesicles or organelles. Approximately 60 different Rabs have been identified in mammals, and each Rab is thought to localize to a specific membrane compartment and regulate its trafficking in a timely manner. Although a few mammalian Rabs have been thoroughly studied, the precise function of the majority of them remains poorly understood. In a recent study, we established a comprehensive collection of Rab-knockout (KO) renal epithelial cells (i.e., Madin-Darby canine kidney [MDCK] II cells) by using Cas9-mediated genome editing technology to analyze the function of each Rab or closely related Rabs in cell viability (or growth), organelle morphology, and epithelial morphogenesis. In this chapter, we describe the procedures for generating Rab-KO MDCK II cells in detail.

Keywords: CRISPR/Cas9; Epithelial cells; Gene knockout; MDCK II cells; Membrane traffic; Polarized trafficking; Rab GTPase.