scholarly journals Multiplex enCas12a screens show functional buffering by paralogs is systematically absent from genome-wide CRISPR/Cas9 knockout screens

Author(s):  
Merve Dede ◽  
Megan McLaughlin ◽  
Eiru Kim ◽  
Traver Hart

AbstractMajor efforts on pooled library CRISPR knockout screening across hundreds of cell lines have identified genes whose disruption leads to fitness defects, a critical step in identifying candidate cancer targets. However, the number of essential genes detected from these monogenic knockout screens are very low compared to the number of constitutively expressed genes in a cell, raising the question of why there are so few essential genes. Through a systematic analysis of screen data in cancer cell lines generated by the Cancer Dependency Map, we observed that half of all constitutively-expressed genes are never hits in any CRISPR screen, and that these never-essentials are highly enriched for paralogs. We investigated paralog buffering through systematic dual-gene CRISPR knockout screening by testing algorithmically defined ~400 candidate paralog pairs with the enCas12a multiplex knockout system in three cell lines. We observed 24 synthetic lethal paralog pairs which have escaped detection by monogenic knockout screens at stringent thresholds. Nineteen of 24 (79%) synthetic lethal interactions were present in at least two out of three cell lines and 14 of 24 (58%) were present in all three cell lines tested, including alternate subunits of stable protein complexes as well as functionally redundant enzymes. Together these observations strongly suggest that paralogs represent a targetable set of genetic dependencies that are systematically under-represented among cell-essential genes due to genetic buffering in monogenic CRISPR-based mammalian functional genomics approaches.

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Merve Dede ◽  
Megan McLaughlin ◽  
Eiru Kim ◽  
Traver Hart

Abstract Background Pooled library CRISPR/Cas9 knockout screening across hundreds of cell lines has identified genes whose disruption leads to fitness defects, a critical step in identifying candidate cancer targets. However, the number of essential genes detected from these monogenic knockout screens is low compared to the number of constitutively expressed genes in a cell. Results Through a systematic analysis of screen data in cancer cell lines generated by the Cancer Dependency Map, we observe that half of all constitutively expressed genes are never detected in any CRISPR screen and that these never-essentials are highly enriched for paralogs. We investigated functional buffering among approximately 400 candidate paralog pairs using CRISPR/enCas12a dual-gene knockout screening in three cell lines. We observe 24 synthetic lethal paralog pairs that have escaped detection by monogenic knockout screens at stringent thresholds. Nineteen of 24 (79%) synthetic lethal interactions are present in at least two out of three cell lines and 14 of 24 (58%) are present in all three cell lines tested, including alternate subunits of stable protein complexes as well as functionally redundant enzymes. Conclusions Together, these observations strongly suggest that functionally redundant paralogs represent a targetable set of genetic dependencies that are systematically under-represented among cell-essential genes in monogenic CRISPR-based loss of function screens.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicola A. Thompson ◽  
Marco Ranzani ◽  
Louise van der Weyden ◽  
Vivek Iyer ◽  
Victoria Offord ◽  
...  

AbstractGenetic redundancy has evolved as a way for human cells to survive the loss of genes that are single copy and essential in other organisms, but also allows tumours to survive despite having highly rearranged genomes. In this study we CRISPR screen 1191 gene pairs, including paralogues and known and predicted synthetic lethal interactions to identify 105 gene combinations whose co-disruption results in a loss of cellular fitness. 27 pairs influence fitness across multiple cell lines including the paralogues FAM50A/FAM50B, two genes of unknown function. Silencing of FAM50B occurs across a range of tumour types and in this context disruption of FAM50A reduces cellular fitness whilst promoting micronucleus formation and extensive perturbation of transcriptional programmes. Our studies reveal the fitness effects of FAM50A/FAM50B in cancer cells.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter C DeWeirdt ◽  
Kendall R Sanson ◽  
Ruth E Hanna ◽  
Mudra Hegde ◽  
Annabel K Sangree ◽  
...  

Isogenic pairs of cell lines, which differ by a single genetic modification, are powerful tools for understanding gene function. Generating such pairs for mammalian cells, however, is labor-intensive, time-consuming, and impossible in some cell types. Here we present an approach to create isogenic pairs of cells and screen them with genome-wide CRISPR-Cas9 libraries to generate genetic interaction maps. We queried the anti-apoptotic genes BCL2L1 and MCL1, and the DNA damage repair gene PARP1, via 25 genome-wide screens across 4 cell lines. For all three genes, we identify a rich set of both expected and novel buffering and synthetic lethal interactions. Further, we compare the interactions observed in genetic space to those found when targeting these genes with small molecules and identify hits that may inform the clinical uses for these inhibitors. We anticipate that this methodology will be broadly useful to comprehensively study genes of interest across many cell types.


2014 ◽  
Vol 42 (15) ◽  
pp. 9838-9853 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saeed Kaboli ◽  
Takuya Yamakawa ◽  
Keisuke Sunada ◽  
Tao Takagaki ◽  
Yu Sasano ◽  
...  

Abstract Despite systematic approaches to mapping networks of genetic interactions in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, exploration of genetic interactions on a genome-wide scale has been limited. The S. cerevisiae haploid genome has 110 regions that are longer than 10 kb but harbor only non-essential genes. Here, we attempted to delete these regions by PCR-mediated chromosomal deletion technology (PCD), which enables chromosomal segments to be deleted by a one-step transformation. Thirty-three of the 110 regions could be deleted, but the remaining 77 regions could not. To determine whether the 77 undeletable regions are essential, we successfully converted 67 of them to mini-chromosomes marked with URA3 using PCR-mediated chromosome splitting technology and conducted a mitotic loss assay of the mini-chromosomes. Fifty-six of the 67 regions were found to be essential for cell growth, and 49 of these carried co-lethal gene pair(s) that were not previously been detected by synthetic genetic array analysis. This result implies that regions harboring only non-essential genes contain unidentified synthetic lethal combinations at an unexpectedly high frequency, revealing a novel landscape of genetic interactions in the S. cerevisiae genome. Furthermore, this study indicates that segmental deletion might be exploited for not only revealing genome function but also breeding stress-tolerant strains.


eLife ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rowena DeJesus ◽  
Francesca Moretti ◽  
Gregory McAllister ◽  
Zuncai Wang ◽  
Phil Bergman ◽  
...  

SQSTM1 is an adaptor protein that integrates multiple cellular signaling pathways and whose expression is tightly regulated at the transcriptional and post-translational level. Here, we describe a forward genetic screening paradigm exploiting CRISPR-mediated genome editing coupled to a cell selection step by FACS to identify regulators of SQSTM1. Through systematic comparison of pooled libraries, we show that CRISPR is superior to RNAi in identifying known SQSTM1 modulators. A genome-wide CRISPR screen exposed MTOR signalling and the entire macroautophagy machinery as key regulators of SQSTM1 and identified several novel modulators including HNRNPM, SLC39A14, SRRD, PGK1 and the ufmylation cascade. We show that ufmylation regulates SQSTM1 by eliciting a cell type-specific ER stress response which induces SQSTM1 expression and results in its accumulation in the cytosol. This study validates pooled CRISPR screening as a powerful method to map the repertoire of cellular pathways that regulate the fate of an individual target protein.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Igor Mačinković ◽  
Ina Theofel ◽  
Tim Hundertmark ◽  
Kristina Kovač ◽  
Stephan Awe ◽  
...  

Abstract CoREST has been identified as a subunit of several protein complexes that generate transcriptionally repressive chromatin structures during development. However, a comprehensive analysis of the CoREST interactome has not been carried out. We use proteomic approaches to define the interactomes of two dCoREST isoforms, dCoREST-L and dCoREST-M, in Drosophila. We identify three distinct histone deacetylase complexes built around a common dCoREST/dRPD3 core: A dLSD1/dCoREST complex, the LINT complex and a dG9a/dCoREST complex. The latter two complexes can incorporate both dCoREST isoforms. By contrast, the dLSD1/dCoREST complex exclusively assembles with the dCoREST-L isoform. Genome-wide studies show that the three dCoREST complexes associate with chromatin predominantly at promoters. Transcriptome analyses in S2 cells and testes reveal that different cell lineages utilize distinct dCoREST complexes to maintain cell-type-specific gene expression programmes: In macrophage-like S2 cells, LINT represses germ line-related genes whereas other dCoREST complexes are largely dispensable. By contrast, in testes, the dLSD1/dCoREST complex prevents transcription of germ line-inappropriate genes and is essential for spermatogenesis and fertility, whereas depletion of other dCoREST complexes has no effect. Our study uncovers three distinct dCoREST complexes that function in a lineage-restricted fashion to repress specific sets of genes thereby maintaining cell-type-specific gene expression programmes.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1728 ◽  
pp. 146601 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noori Chai ◽  
Michael S. Haney ◽  
Julien Couthouis ◽  
David W. Morgens ◽  
Alyssa Benjamin ◽  
...  

eLife ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Spencer Hill ◽  
Kurt Reichermeier ◽  
Daniel C Scott ◽  
Lorena Samentar ◽  
Jasmin Coulombe-Huntington ◽  
...  

The cullin-RING ligases (CRLs) form the major family of E3 ubiquitin ligases. The prototypic CRLs in yeast, called SCF enzymes, employ a single E2 enzyme, Cdc34, to build poly-ubiquitin chains required for degradation. In contrast, six different human E2 and E3 enzyme activities, including Cdc34 orthologs UBE2R1 and UBE2R2, appear to mediate SCF-catalyzed substrate polyubiquitylation in vitro. The combinatorial interplay of these enzymes raises questions about genetic buffering of SCFs in human cells and challenges the dogma that E3s alone determine substrate specificity. To enable the quantitative comparisons of SCF-dependent ubiquitylation reactions with physiological enzyme concentrations, mass spectrometry was employed to estimate E2 and E3 levels in cells. In combination with UBE2R1/2, the E2 UBE2D3 and the E3 ARIH1 both promoted SCF-mediated polyubiquitylation in a substrate-specific fashion. Unexpectedly, UBE2R2 alone had negligible ubiquitylation activity at physiological concentrations and the ablation of UBE2R1/2 had no effect on the stability of SCF substrates in cells. A genome-wide CRISPR screen revealed that an additional E2 enzyme, UBE2G1, buffers against the loss of UBE2R1/2. UBE2G1 had robust in vitro chain extension activity with SCF, and UBE2G1 knockdown in cells lacking UBE2R1/2 resulted in stabilization of the SCF substrates p27 and CYCLIN E as well as the CUL2-RING ligase substrate HIF1α. The results demonstrate the human SCF enzyme system is diversified by association with multiple catalytic enzyme partners.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noori Chai ◽  
Michael S. Haney ◽  
Julien Couthouis ◽  
David W. Morgens ◽  
Alyssa Benjamin ◽  
...  

AbstractMutations in the C9ORF72 gene are the most common cause of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Both toxic gain of function and loss of function pathogenic mechanisms have been proposed. Accruing evidence from mouse knockout studies point to a role for C9ORF72 as a regulator of immune function. To provide further insight into its cellular function, we performed a genome-wide synthetic lethal CRISPR screen in human myeloid cells lacking C9ORF72. We discovered a strong synthetic lethal genetic interaction between C9ORF72 and FIS1, which encodes a mitochondrial membrane protein involved in mitochondrial fission and mitophagy. Mass spectrometry experiments revealed that in C9ORF72 knockout cells, FIS1 strongly bound to a class of immune regulators that activate the receptor for advanced glycation end (RAGE) products and trigger inflammatory cascades. These findings present a novel genetic interactor for C9ORF72 and suggest a compensatory role for FIS1 in suppressing inflammatory signaling in the absence of C9ORF72.


Genes ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucía García-Gutiérrez ◽  
María Dolores Delgado ◽  
Javier León

Promotion of the cell cycle is a major oncogenic mechanism of the oncogene c-MYC (MYC). MYC promotes the cell cycle by not only activating or inducing cyclins and CDKs but also through the downregulation or the impairment of the activity of a set of proteins that act as cell-cycle brakes. This review is focused on the role of MYC as a cell-cycle brake releaser i.e., how MYC stimulates the cell cycle mainly through the functional inactivation of cell cycle inhibitors. MYC antagonizes the activities and/or the expression levels of p15, ARF, p21, and p27. The mechanism involved differs for each protein. p15 (encoded by CDKN2B) and p21 (CDKN1A) are repressed by MYC at the transcriptional level. In contrast, MYC activates ARF, which contributes to the apoptosis induced by high MYC levels. At least in some cells types, MYC inhibits the transcription of the p27 gene (CDKN1B) but also enhances p27’s degradation through the upregulation of components of ubiquitin ligases complexes. The effect of MYC on cell-cycle brakes also opens the possibility of antitumoral therapies based on synthetic lethal interactions involving MYC and CDKs, for which a series of inhibitors are being developed and tested in clinical trials


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