Generation and characterization of inducible KRAB-dCas9 iPSCs from primates for cross-species CRISPRi.

ABSTRACT

Comparisons of molecular phenotypes across primates provide unique information to understand human biology and evolution, and single-cell RNA-seq CRISPR interference (CRISPRi) screens are a powerful approach to analyze them. Here, we generate and validate three human, three gorilla, and two cynomolgus iPS cell lines that carry a dox-inducible KRAB-dCas9 construct at the AAVS1 locus. We show that despite variable expression levels of KRAB-dCas9 among lines, comparable downregulation of target genes and comparable phenotypic effects are observed in a single-cell RNA-seq CRISPRi screen. Hence, we provide valuable resources for performing and further extending CRISPRi in human and non-human primates.