The clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)/associated 9 (Cas9) technology has been recently added to the tools allowing efficient and easy DNA targeting, representing a very promising approach to gene engineering. Using the CRISPR/Cas9 system we have driven the integration of exogenous DNA sequences to the X-linked Hprt gene of mouse embryonic stem cells. We show here that a simple fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH)-based strategy allows the detection and the frequency evaluation of non-specific integrations of a given plasmid. FISH analysis revealed that these integrations do not match the software predicted off-target loci. We conclude that the frequency of these CRISPR-mediated off-target DNA cuts is negligible, since, due to the occurrence of spontaneous double-strand breaks, we observed more aspecific plasmid integrations than those corresponding to predicted off-target sites.

A pre-screening FISH-based method to detect CRISPR/Cas9 off-targets in mouse embryonic stem cells

Paulis M;Lizier M;Susani L;Villa A;Vezzoni P
2015

Abstract

The clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)/associated 9 (Cas9) technology has been recently added to the tools allowing efficient and easy DNA targeting, representing a very promising approach to gene engineering. Using the CRISPR/Cas9 system we have driven the integration of exogenous DNA sequences to the X-linked Hprt gene of mouse embryonic stem cells. We show here that a simple fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH)-based strategy allows the detection and the frequency evaluation of non-specific integrations of a given plasmid. FISH analysis revealed that these integrations do not match the software predicted off-target loci. We conclude that the frequency of these CRISPR-mediated off-target DNA cuts is negligible, since, due to the occurrence of spontaneous double-strand breaks, we observed more aspecific plasmid integrations than those corresponding to predicted off-target sites.
2015
Istituto di Ricerca Genetica e Biomedica - IRGB
Targeted nuclease
CRISPR
FISH
off target
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14243/306001
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