We recently showed that enzymes of the TET family convert 5-mC to 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5-hmC) in DNA. 5-hmC is present at high levels in embryonic stem cells and Purkinje neurons. The methylation ...status of cytosines is typically assessed by reaction with sodium bisulfite followed by PCR amplification. Reaction with sodium bisulfite promotes cytosine deamination, whereas 5-methylcytosine (5-mC) reacts poorly with bisulfite and is resistant to deamination. Since 5-hmC reacts with bisulfite to yield cytosine 5-methylenesulfonate (CMS), we asked how DNA containing 5-hmC behaves in bisulfite sequencing.
We used synthetic oligonucleotides with different distributions of cytosine as templates for generation of DNAs containing C, 5-mC and 5-hmC. The resulting DNAs were subjected in parallel to bisulfite treatment, followed by exposure to conditions promoting cytosine deamination. The extent of conversion of 5-hmC to CMS was estimated to be 99.7%. Sequencing of PCR products showed that neither 5-mC nor 5-hmC undergo C-to-T transitions after bisulfite treatment, confirming that these two modified cytosine species are indistinguishable by the bisulfite technique. DNA in which CMS constituted a large fraction of all bases (28/201) was much less efficiently amplified than DNA in which those bases were 5-mC or uracil (the latter produced by cytosine deamination). Using a series of primer extension experiments, we traced the inefficient amplification of CMS-containing DNA to stalling of Taq polymerase at sites of CMS modification, especially when two CMS bases were either adjacent to one another or separated by 1-2 nucleotides.
We have confirmed that the widely used bisulfite sequencing technique does not distinguish between 5-mC and 5-hmC. Moreover, we show that CMS, the product of bisulfite conversion of 5-hmC, tends to stall DNA polymerases during PCR, suggesting that densely hydroxymethylated regions of DNA may be underrepresented in quantitative methylation analyses.
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Recent advances in genome editing technologies have magnified the prospect of single-dose cures for many genetic diseases. For most genetic disorders, precise DNA correction is anticipated to best ...treat patients. To install desired DNA changes with high precision, our laboratory developed base editors (BEs), which can correct the four most common single-base substitutions, and prime editors, which can install any substitution, insertion, and/or deletion over a stretch of dozens of base pairs. Compared to nuclease-dependent editing approaches that involve double-strand DNA breaks (DSBs) and often result in a large percentage of uncontrolled editing outcomes, such as mixtures of insertions and deletions (indels), larger deletions, and chromosomal rearrangements, base editors and prime editors often offer greater efficiency with fewer byproducts in slowly dividing or non-dividing cells, such as those that make up most of the cells in adult animals. Both viral and non-viral in vivo delivery methods have now been used to deliver base editors and prime editors in animal models, establishing that base editors and prime editors can serve as effective agents for in vivo therapeutic genome editing in animals. This review summarizes examples of in vivo somatic cell (post-natal) base editing and prime editing and prospects for future development.
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Base editing and prime editing have enabled new paths to treat genetic disease by precise in vivo correction. Newby and Liu summarize published examples of in vivo base and prime editing. They review the mechanisms, capabilities, and limitations of these genome editing agents and discuss future prospects.
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Current genome-editing technologies introduce double-stranded (ds) DNA breaks at a target locus as the first step to gene correction. Although most genetic diseases arise from point mutations, ...current approaches to point mutation correction are inefficient and typically induce an abundance of random insertions and deletions (indels) at the target locus resulting from the cellular response to dsDNA breaks. Here we report the development of 'base editing', a new approach to genome editing that enables the direct, irreversible conversion of one target DNA base into another in a programmable manner, without requiring dsDNA backbone cleavage or a donor template. We engineered fusions of CRISPR/Cas9 and a cytidine deaminase enzyme that retain the ability to be programmed with a guide RNA, do not induce dsDNA breaks, and mediate the direct conversion of cytidine to uridine, thereby effecting a C→T (or G→A) substitution. The resulting 'base editors' convert cytidines within a window of approximately five nucleotides, and can efficiently correct a variety of point mutations relevant to human disease. In four transformed human and murine cell lines, second- and third-generation base editors that fuse uracil glycosylase inhibitor, and that use a Cas9 nickase targeting the non-edited strand, manipulate the cellular DNA repair response to favour desired base-editing outcomes, resulting in permanent correction of ~15-75% of total cellular DNA with minimal (typically ≤1%) indel formation. Base editing expands the scope and efficiency of genome editing of point mutations.
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To measure choroidal thickness (CT) in myopic eyes using enhanced depth imaging (EDI).
A cross-sectional study.
Fifty-six consecutive patients with spherical equivalent refractive error of at least 6 ...diopters (D) were evaluated.
Enhanced depth imaging optical coherence tomography (OCT) images were obtained by positioning the spectral-domain OCT device close enough to the eye to acquire an enhanced signal of the choroidal layer. Choroidal depth was measured as the distance between the outer reflective retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) layer and the inner sclera border. Measurements were made in a horizontal fashion across the fovea at 500-μm intervals of the sections. The CT was measured at the subfoveal region in a horizontal fashion, 3 mm temporal to fovea and 3 mm nasal to fovea.
Correlations among CT with age, refractive error in diopters, and visual acuity in logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution (logMAR) were analyzed with linear mixed models.
The mean age of the 56 patients was 50.4 years (± 2.03 years standard deviation; interquartile range IQR, 42-62 years), and the mean refractive error was -8.7 D (IQR, -6.1 to -11 D). The mean subfoveal CT was 118 μm (± 68 μm) and correlated negatively with age (P = 0.032) and refractive error (P = 0.011). Regression analysis suggested that subfoveal CT decreased by 11.9 μm for each decade of life and by 6.205 μm for each diopter of myopia. The subfoveal CT was inversely correlated with the logMAR visual acuity (P = 0.008), and visual acuity improved by 0.02 (logMAR) in a 10-μm increase in CT.
Choroidal thickness decreases with age and severity of myopia. Visual acuity decreases in line with decreasing subfoveal CT. A reduction in CT is related to aging and the severity of myopia, whereas visual acuity depends on subfoveal CT. Our study supports the theory that choroidal abnormality may play a key role in the pathogenesis of myopic degeneration.
The author(s) have no proprietary or commercial interest in any materials discussed in this article.
The RNA-programmable Cas9 endonuclease cleaves double-stranded DNA at sites complementary to a 20-base-pair guide RNA. The Cas9 system has been used to modify genomes in multiple cells and organisms, ...demonstrating its potential as a facile genome-engineering tool. We used in vitro selection and high-throughput sequencing to determine the propensity of eight guide-RNA:Cas9 complexes to cleave each of 10(12) potential off-target DNA sequences. The selection results predicted five off-target sites in the human genome that were confirmed to undergo genome cleavage in HEK293T cells upon expression of one of two guide-RNA:Cas9 complexes. In contrast to previous models, our results show that guide-RNA:Cas9 specificity extends past a 7- to 12-base-pair seed sequence. Our results also suggest a tradeoff between activity and specificity both in vitro and in cells as a shorter, less-active guide RNA is more specific than a longer, more-active guide RNA. High concentrations of guide-RNA:Cas9 complexes can cleave off-target sites containing mutations near or within the PAM that are not cleaved when enzyme concentrations are limiting.
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Programmable sequence-specific genome editing agents such as CRISPR-Cas9 have greatly advanced our ability to manipulate the human genome. Although canonical forms of genome-editing agents and ...programmable transcriptional regulators are constitutively active, precise temporal and spatial control over genome editing and transcriptional regulation activities would enable the more selective and potentially safer use of these powerful technologies. Here, by incorporating ligand-responsive self-cleaving catalytic RNAs (aptazymes) into guide RNAs, we developed a set of aptazyme-embedded guide RNAs that enable small molecule-controlled nuclease-mediated genome editing and small molecule-controlled base editing, as well as small molecule-dependent transcriptional activation in mammalian cells.
Sequence-Controlled Polymers Lutz, Jean-François; Ouchi, Makoto; Liu, David R. ...
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
08/2013, Volume:
341, Issue:
6146
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Sequence-controlled polymers are macromolecules in which monomer units of different chemical nature are arranged in an ordered fashion. The most prominent examples are biological and have been ...studied and used primarily by molecular biologists and biochemists. However, recent progress in protein- and DNA-based nanotechnologies has shown the relevance of sequence-controlled polymers to nonbiological applications, including data storage, nanoelectronics, and catalysis. In addition, synthetic polymer chemistry has provided interesting routes for preparing nonnatural sequence-controlled polymers. Although these synthetic macromolecules do not yet compare in functional scope with their natural counterparts, they open up opportunities for controlling the structure, self-assembly, and macroscopic properties of polymer materials.
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The translation of DNA sequences into corresponding biopolymers enables the production, function and evolution of the macromolecules of life. In contrast, methods to generate sequence-defined ...synthetic polymers with similar levels of control have remained elusive. Here, we report the development of a DNA-templated translation system that enables the enzyme-free translation of DNA templates into sequence-defined synthetic polymers that have no necessary structural relationship with nucleic acids. We demonstrate the efficiency, sequence-specificity and generality of this translation system by oligomerizing building blocks including polyethylene glycol, α-(D)-peptides, and β-peptides in a DNA-programmed manner. Sequence-defined synthetic polymers with molecular weights of 26 kDa containing 16 consecutively coupled building blocks and 90 densely functionalized β-amino acid residues were translated from DNA templates using this strategy. We integrated the DNA-templated translation system developed here into a complete cycle of translation, coding sequence replication, template regeneration and re-translation suitable for the iterated in vitro selection of functional sequence-defined synthetic polymers unrelated in structure to nucleic acids.
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Bacterial leaf streak of rice, caused by Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzicola (Xoc) is an increasingly important yield constraint in this staple crop. A mesophyll colonizer, Xoc differs from X. oryzae ...pv. oryzae (Xoo), which invades xylem to cause bacterial blight of rice. Both produce multiple distinct TAL effectors, type III-delivered proteins that transactivate effector-specific host genes. A TAL effector finds its target(s) via a partially degenerate code whereby the modular effector amino acid sequence identifies nucleotide sequences to which the protein binds. Virulence contributions of some Xoo TAL effectors have been shown, and their relevant targets, susceptibility (S) genes, identified, but the role of TAL effectors in leaf streak is uncharacterized. We used host transcript profiling to compare leaf streak to blight and to probe functions of Xoc TAL effectors. We found that Xoc and Xoo induce almost completely different host transcriptional changes. Roughly one in three genes upregulated by the pathogens is preceded by a candidate TAL effector binding element. Experimental analysis of the 44 such genes predicted to be Xoc TAL effector targets verified nearly half, and identified most others as false predictions. None of the Xoc targets is a known bacterial blight S gene. Mutational analysis revealed that Tal2g, which activates two genes, contributes to lesion expansion and bacterial exudation. Use of designer TAL effectors discriminated a sulfate transporter gene as the S gene. Across all targets, basal expression tended to be higher than genome-average, and induction moderate. Finally, machine learning applied to real vs. falsely predicted targets yielded a classifier that recalled 92% of the real targets with 88% precision, providing a tool for better target prediction in the future. Our study expands the number of known TAL effector targets, identifies a new class of S gene, and improves our ability to predict functional targeting.
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