A heterodimer of evolved designer-recombinases precisely excises a human genomic DNA locus
Research output: Contribution to journal › Research article › Contributed › peer-review
Contributors
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
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 472-485 |
Number of pages | 14 |
Journal | Nucleic acids research |
Volume | 48 |
Issue number | 1 |
Publication status | Published - 10 Jan 2020 |
Peer-reviewed | Yes |
External IDs
PubMedCentral | PMC7107906 |
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Scopus | 85077486923 |
ORCID | /0000-0001-5164-316X/work/142240030 |
ORCID | /0000-0001-9335-9749/work/142256398 |
Keywords
Sustainable Development Goals
Keywords
- 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