in vivo fly CRISPR

2023 Feb 24

Virtual CRISPR Workshop 'at' ADRC 2023

(All day)

Location: 

Online
The DRSC is collaborating with other groups to present a virtual workshop on CRISPR technologies for Drosophila cells and in vivo as part of the GSA Annual Drosophila Research Conference 2023.
2023 Feb 17

DRSC & DRTC Genetics and Genomics Workshop

(All day)

Location: 

Online
The DRSC is collaborating with the Drosophila Research and Training Center of Nigeria and the laboratory of Prof. Ross Cagan (University of Glasgow) to present an online workshop on Drosophila genomics and genetics.
Jonathan Zirin, Justin Bosch, Raghuvir Viswanatha, Stephanie E Mohr, and Norbert Perrimon. 2022. “State-of-the-art CRISPR for in vivo and cell-based studies in Drosophila.” Trends Genet, 38, 5, Pp. 437-453.Abstract
For more than 100 years, the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, has served as a powerful model organism for biological and biomedical research due to its many genetic and physiological similarities to humans and the availability of sophisticated technologies used to manipulate its genome and genes. The Drosophila research community quickly adopted CRISPR technologies and, in the 8 years since the first clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) publications in flies, has explored and innovated methods for mutagenesis, precise genome engineering, and beyond. Moreover, the short lifespan and ease of genetics have made Drosophila an ideal testing ground for in vivo applications and refinements of the rapidly evolving set of CRISPR-associated (CRISPR-Cas) tools. Here, we review innovations in delivery of CRISPR reagents, increased efficiency of cutting and homology-directed repair (HDR), and alternatives to standard Cas9-based approaches. While the focus is primarily on in vivo systems, we also describe the role of Drosophila cultured cells as both an indispensable first step in the process of assessing new CRISPR technologies and a platform for genome-wide CRISPR pooled screens.
Justin A. Bosch and Norbert Perrimon. 2022. “Prime Editing for Precise Genome Engineering in Drosophila.” In Drosophila: Methods and Protocols, edited by Christian Dahmann, Pp. 113 - 134. New York, NY: Springer US. Publisher's VersionAbstract
Editing the Drosophila genome is incredibly useful for gene functional analysis. However, compared to gene knockouts, precise gene editing is difficult to achieve. Prime editing, a recently described CRISPR/Cas9-based technique, has the potential to make precise editing simpler and faster, and produce less errors than traditional methods. Initially described in mammalian cells, prime editing is functional in Drosophila somatic and germ cells. Here, we outline steps to design, generate, and express prime editing components in transgenic flies. Furthermore, we highlight a crossing scheme to produce edited fly stocks in less than 3 months.
Graphical image of tissue culture, fly pushing, and computer, and the team of people who work with them

DRSC/TRiP and DRSC-BTRR Office Hours

September 13, 2021

New this fall: Online office hours!

Do you have questions about modifying Drosophila cell lines with CRISPR or performing large-scale cell screens? Questions about in vivo RNAi with TRiP fly stocks or CRISPR knockout or activation with our sgRNA fly stocks? Questions about our new protocols and resources for CRISPR mosquito cell lines? Pop into our Zoom office hours to say hello and get our expert input! Registration is required (see below).

DRSC/TRiP & DRSC-BTRR Office Hours Schedule:

Mon. Sept. 27, 2021, 12...

Read more about DRSC/TRiP and DRSC-BTRR Office Hours
Jun Xu, Ah-Ram Kim, Ross W. Cheloha, Fabian A. Fischer, Joshua Shing Shun Li, Yuan Feng, Emily Stoneburner, Richard Binari, Stephanie E. Mohr, Jonathan Zirin, Hidde Ploegh, and Norbert Perrimon. 9/29/2021. “Protein visualization and manipulation in Drosophila through the use of epitope tags recognized by nanobodies.” bioRxiv.Abstract
Expansion of the available repertoire of reagents for visualization and manipulation of proteins will help understand their function. Short epitope tags installed on proteins of interest and recognized by existing binders such as nanobodies facilitate protein studies by obviating the need to isolate new antibodies directed against them. Nanobodies have several advantages over conventional antibodies, as they can be expressed and used as tools for visualization and manipulation of proteins in vivo. Here, we combine the advantages of short epitopes (NanoTags) and nanobodies specific for them by characterizing two short (<15 aa) tags, 127D01 and VHH05, which are high-affinity targets of nanobodies. We demonstrate that these NanoTags and the nanobodies that recognize them can be used in Drosophila for in vivo protein detection and re-localization, direct and indirect immunofluorescence, immunoblotting, and immunoprecipitation. We further show that CRISPR-mediated gene targeting provides a straightforward approach to tagging endogenous proteins with the NanoTags. Single copies of the NanoTags, regardless of their location, suffice for detection. This versatile and validated toolbox of tags and nanobodies will serve as a resource for a wide array of applications, including functional studies in Drosophila and beyond.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.
R. Viswanatha, M. Zaffagni, J. Zirin, N. Perrimon, and S. Kadener. 11/1/2020. “CRISPR-Cas13 mediated Knock Down in Drosophila cultured cells.” BioRxiv.Abstract
Manipulation of gene expression is one of the best approaches for studying gene function in vivo. CRISPR-Cas13 has the potential to be a powerful technique for manipulating RNA expression in diverse animal systems in vivo, including Drosophila melanogaster. Studies using Cas13 in mammalian cell lines for gene knockdown showed increased on-target efficiency and decreased off-targeting relative to RNAi. Moreover, catalytically inactive Cas13 fusions can be used to image RNA molecules, install precise changes to the epitranscriptome, or alter splicing. However, recent studies have suggested that there may be limitations to the deployment of these tools in Drosophila, so further optimization of the system is required. Here, we report a new set of PspCas13b and RfxCas13d expression constructs and use these reagents to successfully knockdown both reporter and endogenous transcripts in Drosophila cells. As toxicity issues have been reported with high level of Cas13, we effectively decreased PspCas13b expression without impairing its function by tuning down translation. Furthermore, we altered the spatial activity of both PspCas13b and RfxCas13d by introducing Nuclear Exportation Sequences (NES) and Nuclear Localization Sequences (NLS) while maintaining activity. Finally, we generated a stable cell line expressing RfxCas13d under the inducible metallothionein promoter, establishing a useful tool for high-throughput genetic screening. Thus, we report new reagents for performing RNA CRISPR-Cas13 experiments in Drosophila, providing additional Cas13 expression constructs that retain activity.
J. A. Bosch, G. Birchak, and N. Perrimon. 2021. “Precise genome engineering in Drosophila using prime editing.” Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 118.Abstract
Precise genome editing is a valuable tool to study gene function in model organisms. Prime editing, a precise editing system developed in mammalian cells, does not require double-strand breaks or donor DNA and has low off-target effects. Here, we applied prime editing for the model organism Drosophila melanogaster and developed conditions for optimal editing. By expressing prime editing components in cultured cells or somatic cells of transgenic flies, we precisely introduce premature stop codons in three classical visible marker genes, ebony, white, and forked Furthermore, by restricting editing to germ cells, we demonstrate efficient germ-line transmission of a precise edit in ebony to 36% of progeny. Our results suggest that prime editing is a useful system in Drosophila to study gene function, such as engineering precise point mutations, deletions, or epitope tags.
Image of an anesthetized male Drosophila fruit fly

DRSC/TRiP presentations from June 2020 Boston Area Drosophila Meeting

June 12, 2020
Did you miss the presentations from Claire Hu and Jonathan Zirin at the June 2020 Boston Area Drosophila Meeting? No problem! The slides can be accessed from this post. Click the title above to view the whole post, then scroll down to access the PDFs. These presentations describe what's new and next in bioinformatics and in vivo technologies at the DRSC/TRiP. Feel free to reach out with questions. Interested in the BAD meeting? Info about the meeting can be found here. Read more about DRSC/TRiP presentations from June 2020 Boston Area Drosophila Meeting
from Figure 1 in Ewen-Campen et al. in Dev Cell

Transgenic Fly Stocks for Double Knockout of Paralog Pairs

May 18, 2020

Paralogs can be defined as related genes within a genome that are thought to arise from gene duplication events. Because paralogous proteins share amino acid identity, they can have redundant functions. But the picture is not necessarily so straightforward. Indeed, there are examples in which paralogous genes have distinct functions in some tissues, and overlapping functions in others.

The DRSC/TRiP is engaged in a project in collaboration with the Perrimon and Bellen labs to generate resources useful for the study of paralogous genes in Drosophila.

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Read more about Transgenic Fly Stocks for Double Knockout of Paralog Pairs
Jonathan Zirin, Yanhui Hu, Luping Liu, Donghui Yang-Zhou, Ryan Colbeth, Dong Yan, Ben Ewen-Campen, Rong Tao, Eric Vogt, Sara VanNest, Cooper Cavers, Christians Villalta, Aram Comjean, Jin Sun, Xia Wang, Yu Jia, Ruibao Zhu, Ping Peng, Jinchao Yu, Da Shen, Yuhao Qiu, Limmond Ayisi, Henna Ragoowansi, Ethan Fenton, Senait Efrem, Annette Parks, Kuniaki Saito, Shu Kondo, Liz Perkins, Stephanie E Mohr, Jianquan Ni, and Norbert Perrimon. 2020. “Large-Scale Transgenic Resource Collections for Loss- and Gain-of-Function Studies.” Genetics.Abstract
The Transgenic RNAi Project (TRiP), a functional genomics platform at Harvard Medical School, was initiated in 2008 to generate and distribute a genome-scale collection of RNAi fly stocks. To date, the TRiP has generated >15,000 RNAi fly stocks. As this covers most genes, we have largely transitioned to development of new resources based on CRISPR technology. Here, we present an update on our libraries of publicly available RNAi and CRISPR fly stocks, and focus on the TRiP-CRISPR overexpression (TRiP-OE) and TRiP-CRISPR knockout (TRiP-KO) collections. TRiP-OE stocks express sgRNAs targeting upstream of a gene transcription start site. Gene activation is triggered by co-expression of catalytically dead Cas9 (dCas9) fused to an activator domain, either VP64-p65-Rta (VPR) or Synergistic Activation Mediator (SAM). TRiP-KO stocks express one or two sgRNAs targeting the coding sequence of a gene or genes. Cutting is triggered by co-expression of Cas9, allowing for generation of indels in both germline and somatic tissue. To date, we have generated more than 5,000 CRISPR-OE or -KO stocks for the community. These resources provide versatile, transformative tools for gene activation, gene repression, and genome engineering.
Oguz Kanca, Jonathan Zirin, Jorge Garcia-Marques, Shannon Marie Knight, Donghui Yang-Zhou, Gabriel Amador, Hyunglok Chung, Zhongyuan Zuo, Liwen Ma, Yuchun He, Wen-Wen Lin, Ying Fang, Ming Ge, Shinya Yamamoto, Karen L Schulze, Yanhui Hu, Allan C Spradling, Stephanie E Mohr, Norbert Perrimon, and Hugo J Bellen. 2019. “An efficient CRISPR-based strategy to insert small and large fragments of DNA using short homology arms.” Elife, 8.Abstract
We previously reported a CRISPR-mediated knock-in strategy into introns of genes, generating an - transgenic library for multiple uses (Lee et al., 2018b). The method relied on double stranded DNA (dsDNA) homology donors with ~1 kb homology arms. Here, we describe three new simpler ways to edit genes in flies. We create single stranded DNA (ssDNA) donors using PCR and add 100 nt of homology on each side of an integration cassette, followed by enzymatic removal of one strand. Using this method, we generated GFP-tagged proteins that mark organelles in S2 cells. We then describe two dsDNA methods using cheap synthesized donors flanked by 100 nt homology arms and gRNA target sites cloned into a plasmid. Upon injection, donor DNA (1 to 5 kb) is released from the plasmid by Cas9. The cassette integrates efficiently and precisely . The approach is fast, cheap, and scalable.
Graphical image of tissue culture, fly pushing, and computer, and the team of people who work with them

DRSC-Biomedical Technology Research Resource

October 21, 2019

We are pleased to announce that we have been funded by NIH NIGMS to form the Drosophila Research & Screening Center-Biomedical Technology Research Resource (DRSC-BTRR). The P41-funded DRSC-BTRR (N. Perrimon, PI; S. Mohr, Co-I) builds upon and extends past goals of the Drosophila RNAi Screening Center.

As the DRSC-BTRR, we are working together with collaborators whose 'driving biomedical projects' inform development of new technologies at the DRSC. At the same time, we continue to support Drosophila cell-based RNAi and CRIPSR knockout screens and related...

Read more about DRSC-Biomedical Technology Research Resource

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