A heterodimer of evolved designer-recombinases precisely excises a human genomic DNA locus

Publikation: Beitrag in FachzeitschriftForschungsartikelBeigetragenBegutachtung

Beitragende

Abstract

Site-specific recombinases (SSRs) such as the Cre/loxP system are useful genome engineering tools that can be repurposed by altering their DNA-binding specificity. However, SSRs that delete a natural sequence from the human genome have not been reported thus far. Here, we describe the generation of an SSR system that precisely excises a 1.4 kb fragment from the human genome. Through a streamlined process of substrate-linked directed evolution we generated two separate recombinases that, when expressed together, act as a heterodimer to delete a human genomic sequence from chromosome 7. Our data indicates that designer-recombinases can be generated in a manageable timeframe for precision genome editing. A large-scale bioinformatics analysis suggests that around 13% of all human protein-coding genes could be targetable by dual designer-recombinase induced genomic deletion (dDRiGD). We propose that heterospecific designer-recombinases, which work independently of the host DNA repair machinery, represent an efficient and safe alternative to nuclease-based genome editing technologies.

Details

OriginalspracheEnglisch
Seiten (von - bis)472-485
Seitenumfang14
FachzeitschriftNucleic acids research
Jahrgang48
Ausgabenummer1
PublikationsstatusVeröffentlicht - 10 Jan. 2020
Peer-Review-StatusJa

Externe IDs

PubMedCentral PMC7107906
Scopus 85077486923
ORCID /0000-0001-5164-316X/work/142240030
ORCID /0000-0001-9335-9749/work/142256398

Schlagworte

Ziele für nachhaltige Entwicklung

Schlagwörter

  • Base Sequence, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 7/chemistry, Cloning, Molecular, Computational Biology/methods, DNA Nucleotidyltransferases/genetics, Escherichia coli/genetics, Gene Editing/methods, Gene Expression, Genetic Loci, Genetic Vectors/chemistry, Genome, Human, Humans, Recombinant Proteins/genetics, Sequence Deletion