Conjugation and Evaluation of Triazole-Linked Single Guide RNA for CRISPR-Cas9 Gene Editing.

The CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing system requires Cas9 endonuclease and guide RNAs (either the natural dual RNA consisting of crRNA and tracrRNA or a chimeric single guide RNA) that direct site-specific double-stranded DNA cleavage. This communication describes a click ligation approach that uses alkyne-azide cycloaddition to generate a triazole-linked single guide RNA (sgRNA). The conjugated sgRNA shows efficient and comparable genome editing activity to natural dual RNA and unmodified sgRNA constructs.

Monitoring lipid anchor organization in cell membranes by PIE-FCCS.

This study examines the dynamic co-localization of lipid-anchored fluorescent proteins in living cells using pulsed-interleaved excitation fluorescence cross-correlation spectroscopy (PIE-FCCS) and fluorescence lifetime analysis. Specifically, we look at the pairwise co-localization of anchors from lymphocyte cell kinase (LCK: myristoyl, palmitoyl, palmitoyl), RhoA (geranylgeranyl), and K-Ras (farnesyl) proteins in different cell types. In Jurkat cells, a density-dependent increase in cross-correlation among RhoA anchors is observed, while LCK anchors exhibit a more moderate increase and broader distribution. No correlation was detected among K-Ras anchors or between any of the different anchor types studied. Fluorescence lifetime data reveal no significant Förster resonance energy transfer in any of the data. In COS 7 cells, minimal correlation was detected among LCK or RhoA anchors. Taken together, these observations suggest that some lipid anchors take part in anchor-specific co-clustering with other existing clusters of native proteins and lipids in the membrane. Importantly, these observations do not support a simple interpretation of lipid anchor-mediated organization driven by partitioning based on binary lipid phase separation.

High-content analysis screening for cell cycle regulators using arrayed synthetic crRNA libraries.

The CRISPR-Cas9 system has been utilized for large-scale, loss-of-function screens mainly using lentiviral pooled formats and cell-survival phenotypic assays. Screening in an arrayed format expands the types of phenotypic readouts that can be used to now include high-content, morphology-based assays, and with the recent availability of synthetic crRNA libraries, new studies are emerging. Here, we use a cell cycle reporter cell line to perform an arrayed, synthetic crRNA:tracrRNA screen targeting 169 genes (>600 crRNAs) and used high content analysis (HCA) to identify genes that regulate the cell cycle. Seven parameters were used to classify cells into cell cycle categories and multiple parameters were combined using a new analysis technique to identify hits. Comprehensive hit follow-up experiments included target gene expression analysis, confirmation of DNA insertions/deletions, and validation with orthogonal reagents. Our results show that most hits had three or more independent crRNAs per gene that demonstrated a phenotype with consistent individual parameters, indicating that our screen produced high-confidence hits with low off-target effects and allowed us to identify hits with more subtle phenotypes. The results of our screen demonstrate the power of using arrayed, synthetic crRNAs for functional phenotypic screening using multiparameter HCA assays.