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Lazar NH, Celik S, Chen L, Fay MM, Irish JC, Jensen J, Tillinghast CA, Urbanik J, Bone WP, Gibson CC, Haque IS. High-resolution genome-wide mapping of chromosome-arm-scale truncations induced by CRISPR-Cas9 editing. Nat Genet 2024; 56:1482-1493. [PMID: 38811841 PMCID: PMC11250378 DOI: 10.1038/s41588-024-01758-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/30/2023] [Accepted: 04/18/2024] [Indexed: 05/31/2024]
Abstract
Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-CRISPR-associated protein 9 (Cas9) is a powerful tool for introducing targeted mutations in DNA, but recent studies have shown that it can have unintended effects such as structural changes. However, these studies have not yet looked genome wide or across data types. Here we performed a phenotypic CRISPR-Cas9 scan targeting 17,065 genes in primary human cells, revealing a 'proximity bias' in which CRISPR knockouts show unexpected similarities to unrelated genes on the same chromosome arm. This bias was found to be consistent across cell types, laboratories, Cas9 delivery methods and assay modalities, and the data suggest that it is caused by telomeric truncations of chromosome arms, with cell cycle and apoptotic pathways playing a mediating role. Additionally, a simple correction is demonstrated to mitigate this pervasive bias while preserving biological relationships. This previously uncharacterized effect has implications for functional genomic studies using CRISPR-Cas9, with applications in discovery biology, drug-target identification, cell therapies and genetic therapeutics.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Lu Chen
- Recursion, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
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Broderick R, Cherdyntseva V, Nieminuszczy J, Dragona E, Kyriakaki M, Evmorfopoulou T, Gagos S, Niedzwiedz W. Pathway choice in the alternative telomere lengthening in neoplasia is dictated by replication fork processing mediated by EXD2's nuclease activity. Nat Commun 2023; 14:2428. [PMID: 37105990 PMCID: PMC10140042 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-38029-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/06/2022] [Accepted: 04/12/2023] [Indexed: 04/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Telomerase-independent cancer proliferation via the alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT) relies upon two distinct, largely uncharacterized, break-induced-replication (BIR) processes. How cancer cells initiate and regulate these terminal repair mechanisms is unknown. Here, we establish that the EXD2 nuclease is recruited to ALT telomeres to direct their maintenance. We demonstrate that EXD2 loss leads to telomere shortening, elevated telomeric sister chromatid exchanges, C-circle formation as well as BIR-mediated telomeric replication. We discover that EXD2 fork-processing activity triggers a switch between RAD52-dependent and -independent ALT-associated BIR. The latter is suppressed by EXD2 but depends specifically on the fork remodeler SMARCAL1 and the MUS81 nuclease. Thus, our findings suggest that processing of stalled replication forks orchestrates elongation pathway choice at ALT telomeres. Finally, we show that co-depletion of EXD2 with BLM, DNA2 or POLD3 confers synthetic lethality in ALT cells, identifying EXD2 as a potential druggable target for ALT-reliant cancers.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Veronica Cherdyntseva
- Laboratory of Genetics, Center of Clinical Research, Experimental Surgery and Translational Research Biomedical Research Foundation Academy of Athens (BRFAA), Athens, Greece
| | | | - Eleni Dragona
- Laboratory of Genetics, Center of Clinical Research, Experimental Surgery and Translational Research Biomedical Research Foundation Academy of Athens (BRFAA), Athens, Greece
| | - Maria Kyriakaki
- Laboratory of Genetics, Center of Clinical Research, Experimental Surgery and Translational Research Biomedical Research Foundation Academy of Athens (BRFAA), Athens, Greece
| | - Theodora Evmorfopoulou
- Laboratory of Genetics, Center of Clinical Research, Experimental Surgery and Translational Research Biomedical Research Foundation Academy of Athens (BRFAA), Athens, Greece
| | - Sarantis Gagos
- Laboratory of Genetics, Center of Clinical Research, Experimental Surgery and Translational Research Biomedical Research Foundation Academy of Athens (BRFAA), Athens, Greece.
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Becklin KL, Draper GM, Madden RA, Kluesner MG, Koga T, Huang M, Weiss WA, Spector LG, Largaespada DA, Moriarity BS, Webber BR. Developing Bottom-Up Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Derived Solid Tumor Models Using Precision Genome Editing Technologies. CRISPR J 2022; 5:517-535. [PMID: 35972367 PMCID: PMC9529369 DOI: 10.1089/crispr.2022.0032] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/10/2022] [Accepted: 07/29/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Advances in genome and tissue engineering have spurred significant progress and opportunity for innovation in cancer modeling. Human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are an established and powerful tool to study cellular processes in the context of disease-specific genetic backgrounds; however, their application to cancer has been limited by the resistance of many transformed cells to undergo successful reprogramming. Here, we review the status of human iPSC modeling of solid tumors in the context of genetic engineering, including how base and prime editing can be incorporated into "bottom-up" cancer modeling, a term we coined for iPSC-based cancer models using genetic engineering to induce transformation. This approach circumvents the need to reprogram cancer cells while allowing for dissection of the genetic mechanisms underlying transformation, progression, and metastasis with a high degree of precision and control. We also discuss the strengths and limitations of respective engineering approaches and outline experimental considerations for establishing future models.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kelsie L. Becklin
- Department of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Neurosurgery and Brain Tumor Research Center, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
- Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Neurosurgery and Brain Tumor Research Center, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
- Center for Genome Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Neurosurgery and Brain Tumor Research Center, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
| | - Garrett M. Draper
- Department of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Neurosurgery and Brain Tumor Research Center, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
- Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Neurosurgery and Brain Tumor Research Center, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
- Center for Genome Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Neurosurgery and Brain Tumor Research Center, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
| | - Rebecca A. Madden
- Department of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Neurosurgery and Brain Tumor Research Center, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
- Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Neurosurgery and Brain Tumor Research Center, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
- Center for Genome Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Neurosurgery and Brain Tumor Research Center, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
| | - Mitchell G. Kluesner
- Department of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Neurosurgery and Brain Tumor Research Center, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
- Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Neurosurgery and Brain Tumor Research Center, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
- Center for Genome Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Neurosurgery and Brain Tumor Research Center, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
| | - Tomoyuki Koga
- Ludwig Cancer Research San Diego Branch, La Jolla, California, USA; Neurosurgery and Brain Tumor Research Center, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
- Department of Neurosurgery, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Neurosurgery and Brain Tumor Research Center, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
| | - Miller Huang
- Department of Pediatrics, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA; Neurosurgery and Brain Tumor Research Center, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
- Cancer and Blood Disease Institute, Children's Hospital Los Angeles and The Saban Research Institute, Los Angeles, California, USA; Neurosurgery and Brain Tumor Research Center, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
| | - William A. Weiss
- Departments of Neurology, Pediatrics, Neurosurgery, Brain Tumor Research Center, and Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA; and Neurosurgery and Brain Tumor Research Center, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
- Departments of Pediatrics, Neurosurgery and Brain Tumor Research Center, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
| | - Logan G. Spector
- Department of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Neurosurgery and Brain Tumor Research Center, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
- Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Neurosurgery and Brain Tumor Research Center, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
| | - David A. Largaespada
- Department of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Neurosurgery and Brain Tumor Research Center, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
- Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Neurosurgery and Brain Tumor Research Center, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
- Center for Genome Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Neurosurgery and Brain Tumor Research Center, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
| | - Branden S. Moriarity
- Department of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Neurosurgery and Brain Tumor Research Center, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
- Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Neurosurgery and Brain Tumor Research Center, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
- Center for Genome Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Neurosurgery and Brain Tumor Research Center, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
| | - Beau R. Webber
- Department of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Neurosurgery and Brain Tumor Research Center, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
- Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Neurosurgery and Brain Tumor Research Center, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
- Center for Genome Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Neurosurgery and Brain Tumor Research Center, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
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