Development of a selection assay for small guide RNAs that drive efficient site-directed RNA editing.

A major challenge confronting the clinical application of site-directed RNA editing (SDRE) is the design of small guide RNAs (gRNAs) that can drive efficient editing. Although many gRNA designs have effectively recruited endogenous Adenosine Deaminases that Act on RNA (ADARs), most of them exceed the size of currently FDA-approved antisense oligos. We developed an unbiased in vitro selection assay to identify short gRNAs that promote superior RNA editing of a premature termination codon. The selection assay relies on hairpin substrates in which the target sequence is linked to partially randomized gRNAs in the same molecule, so that gRNA sequences that promote editing can be identified by sequencing. These RNA substrates were incubated in vitro with ADAR2 and the edited products were selected using amplification refractory mutation system PCR and used to regenerate the substrates for a new round of selection. After nine repetitions, hairpins which drove superior editing were identified. When gRNAs of these hairpins were delivered in trans, eight of the top ten short gRNAs drove superior editing both in vitro and in cellula. These results show that efficient small gRNAs can be selected using our approach, an important advancement for the clinical application of SDRE.

A massively parallel barcoded sequencing pipeline enables generation of the first ORFeome and interactome map for rice.

Systematic mappings of protein interactome networks have provided invaluable functional information for numerous model organisms. Here we develop PCR-mediated Linkage of barcoded Adapters To nucleic acid Elements for sequencing (PLATE-seq) that serves as a general tool to rapidly sequence thousands of DNA elements. We validate its utility by generating the ORFeome for Oryza sativa covering 2,300 genes and constructing a high-quality protein-protein interactome map consisting of 322 interactions between 289 proteins, expanding the known interactions in rice by roughly 50%. Our work paves the way for high-throughput profiling of protein-protein interactions in a wide range of organisms.