1AbstractGenome editing is transforming bioscience research, but its application to non-model organisms, such as farmed animal species, requires optimisation. Salmonids are the most important aquaculture species by value, and improving genetic resistance to infectious disease is a major goal. However, use of genome editing to evaluate putative disease resistance genes in cell lines, and the use of genome-wide CRISPR screens is currently limited by a lack of available tools and techniques. In the current study, an optimised protocol using lentivirus transduction for efficient integration of constructs into the genome of a Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshwaytcha) cell line (CHSE-214) was developed. As proof-of-principle, two target genes were edited with high efficiency in an EGFP-Cas9 stable CHSE cell line; specifically, the exogenous, integrated EGFP and the endogenous RIG-I locus. Finally, the effective use of antibiotic selection to enrich the successfully edited targeted population was demonstrated. The optimised lentiviral-mediated CRISPR method reported here increases possibilities for efficient genome editing in salmonid cells, in particular for future applications of genome-wide CRISPR screens for disease resistance.
Generation of nonviral integration-free human iPS cell line KISCOi001-A from normal human fibroblasts, under defined xeno-free and feeder-free conditions