scholarly journals Analysis and minimization of cellular RNA editing by DNA adenine base editors

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
pp. eaax5717 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holly A. Rees ◽  
Christopher Wilson ◽  
Jordan L. Doman ◽  
David R. Liu
Keyword(s):  
Rna Editing ◽  
Product Formation ◽  
Base Pairs ◽  
Base Editing ◽  
Dna And Rna ◽  
Mammalian Cell Lines ◽  
Target Dna ◽  
Editing Activity ◽  
Dna Editing ◽  
Adenine Base

Adenine base editors (ABEs) enable precise and efficient conversion of target A•T base pairs to G•C base pairs in genomic DNA with a minimum of by-products. While ABEs have been reported to exhibit minimal off-target DNA editing, off-target editing of cellular RNA by ABEs has not been examined in depth. Here, we demonstrate that a current ABE generates low but detectable levels of widespread adenosine-to-inosine editing in cellular RNAs. Using structure-guided principles to design mutations in both deaminase domains, we developed new ABE variants that retain their ability to edit DNA efficiently but show greatly reduced RNA editing activity, as well as lower off-target DNA editing activity and reduced indel by-product formation, in three mammalian cell lines. By decoupling DNA and RNA editing activities, these ABE variants increase the precision of adenine base editing by minimizing both RNA and DNA off-target editing activity.

scholarly journals Precise adenine base editors that exhibit minimized cytosine catalysis

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
You Kyeong Jeong ◽  
SeokHoon Lee ◽  
Gue-Ho Hwang ◽  
Sung-Ah Hong ◽  
Se-eun Park ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Synergistic Effect ◽  
Adenosine Deaminase ◽  
Rna Editing ◽  
The Other ◽  
Cytosine Deamination ◽  
Base Editing ◽  
Target Dna ◽  
Editing Activity ◽  
Target Rna ◽  
Adenine Base

Abstract Adenine base editors (ABEs) promise specific A-to-G conversions at genomic sites of interest. However, ABEs also induce cytosine deamination at the target DNA site and exhibit transcriptome-wide off-target RNA editing. To alleviate the ABE-mediated cytosine editing activity, here we engineered the commonly-used version of adenosine deaminase, TadA7.10, to contain rationally designed mutations. We ultimately found that ABE7.10 with a D108Q mutation in TadA7.10 exhibited greatly reduced cytosine deamination activity, and conversely, ABE7.10 containing a P48R mutation displayed increased cytosine deamination activity rather than adenine editing. We found that the D108Q mutation also reduces cytosine deamination activity in two recently-developed versions of ABE, ABE8e and ABE8s, and has a synergistic effect with V106W, a key mutation that reduces off-target RNA editing. On the other hand, by incorporating the P48R mutation into ABE7.10, we demonstrated TC-specific base editing tools that enable either TC-to-TT or TC-to-TG conversions, broadening the utility of base editors.

scholarly journals Engineering domain-inlaid SaCas9 adenine base editors with reduced RNA off-targets and increased on-target DNA editing

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Minh Thuan Nguyen Tran ◽  
Mohd Khairul Nizam Mohd Khalid ◽  
Qi Wang ◽  
Jacqueline K. R. Walker ◽  
Grace E. Lidgerwood ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Genome Engineering ◽  
Editing Efficiency ◽  
Base Editing ◽  
Target Dna ◽  
Dna Editing ◽  
Target Activity ◽  
Adenine Base

Abstract Precision genome engineering has dramatically advanced with the development of CRISPR/Cas base editing systems that include cytosine base editors and adenine base editors (ABEs). Herein, we compare the editing profile of circularly permuted and domain-inlaid Cas9 base editors, and find that on-target editing is largely maintained following their intradomain insertion, but that structural permutation of the ABE can affect differing RNA off-target events. With this insight, structure-guided design was used to engineer an SaCas9 ABE variant (microABE I744) that has dramatically improved on-target editing efficiency and a reduced RNA-off target footprint compared to current N-terminal linked SaCas9 ABE variants. This represents one of the smallest AAV-deliverable Cas9-ABEs available, which has been optimized for robust on-target activity and RNA-fidelity based upon its stereochemistry.

scholarly journals Efficient precise in vivo base editing in adult dystrophic mice

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Xu ◽  
Chen Zhang ◽  
Haiwen Li ◽  
Peipei Wang ◽  
Yandi Gao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Rna Editing ◽  
Deep Sequencing ◽  
High Efficiency ◽  
Contractile Function ◽  
Functional Improvement ◽  
Base Editing ◽  
Monogenic Diseases ◽  
Editing Activity ◽  
Target Rna

ABSTRACTBackgroundRecent advances in the base editing technology have created an exciting opportunity to precisely correct disease-causing mutations. However, the large size of base editors and their inherited off-target activities pose challenges for in vivo base editing. Moreover, the requirement of a protospacer adjacent motif (PAM) sequence within a suitable window near the mutation site further limits the targeting feasibility. In this work, we rationally improved the adenine base editor (ABE) to overcome these challenges and demonstrated the exceptionally high efficiency to precisely edit the Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) mutation in adult mice.MethodsWe employed a fluorescence reporter assay to assess the feasibility of ABE to correct the dystrophin mutation in mdx4cv mice. The intein protein trans-splicing (PTS) was used to split the oversized ABE into two halves for efficient packaging into adeno-associated virus 9 (AAV9). The ABE with broadened PAM recognition (ABE-NG) was rationally re-designed for improved off-target RNA editing activity and on-target DNA editing efficiency. The mdx4cv mice at the 5 weeks of age receiving intramuscular or intravenous injections of AAV9 carrying the improved ABE-NG were analyzed at 10 weeks or 10 months of age. The editing outcomes were analyzed by Sanger and deep sequencing of the amplicons, immunofluorescence staining, Western blot and contractile function measurements. The off-target activities, host immune response and long-term toxicity were analyzed by deep sequencing, ELISA and serological assays, respectively.ResultsWe showed efficient in vitro base correction of the dystrophin mutation carried in mdx4cv mice using ABE-NG. The super-fast intein-splits of ABE-NG enabled the expression of full-length ABE-NG and efficient AAV9 packaging. We rationally improved ABE-NG with eliminated off-target RNA editing activity and minimal PAM requirement, and packaged into AAV9 (AAV9-iNG). Intramuscular and intravenous administration of AAV9-iNG resulted in dystrophin restoration and functional improvement. At 10 months after AAV9-iNG treatment, a near complete rescue of dystrophin was measured in mdx4cv mouse hearts. The off-target activities remained low and no obvious toxicity was detected.ConclusionsThis study highlights the promise of permanent base editing using iABE-NG for the treatment of monogenic diseases, in particular, the genetic cardiomyopathies.

scholarly journals BEON: A Functional Fluorescence Reporter for Quantification and Enrichment of Adenine Base-Editing Activity

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (7) ◽  
pp. 1696-1705 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peipei Wang ◽  
Li Xu ◽  
Yandi Gao ◽  
Renzhi Han
Keyword(s):  
Base Editing ◽  
Editing Activity ◽  
Adenine Base

scholarly journals Computer simulations explain mutation-induced effects on the DNA editing by adenine base editors

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (10) ◽  
pp. eaaz2309 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kartik L. Rallapalli ◽  
Alexis C. Komor ◽  
Francesco Paesani
Keyword(s):  
Conformational Changes ◽  
Single Mutation ◽  
Base Editing ◽  
Functional Roles ◽  
Dna Base ◽  
Dna Editing ◽  
Dynamics Simulations ◽  
Editing Enzyme ◽  
Adenine Base

Adenine base editors, which were developed by engineering a transfer RNA adenosine deaminase enzyme (TadA) into a DNA editing enzyme (TadA*), enable precise modification of A:T to G⋮C base pairs. Here, we use molecular dynamics simulations to uncover the structural and functional roles played by the initial mutations in the onset of the DNA editing activity by TadA*. Atomistic insights reveal that early mutations lead to intricate conformational changes in the structure of TadA*. In particular, the first mutation, Asp108Asn, induces an enhancement in the binding affinity of TadA to DNA. In silico and in vivo reversion analyses verify the importance of this single mutation in imparting functional promiscuity to TadA* and demonstrate that TadA* performs DNA base editing as a monomer rather than a dimer.

scholarly journals Dimerisation of APOBEC1 is dispensable for its RNA editing activity

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martina Chieca ◽  
Marco Montini ◽  
Francesco Severi ◽  
Riccardo Pecori ◽  
Silvestro G. Conticello
Keyword(s):  
Rna Editing ◽  
Stop Codon ◽  
Dominant Negative ◽  
Dominant Negative Effect ◽  
Main Determinant ◽  
Apob Mrna ◽  
Dna And Rna ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Editing Activity ◽  
Nuclear Degradation

ABSTRACTAmong the AID/APOBECs -a family of DNA and RNA deaminases-APOBEC1 physiologically partakes into a complex that edits a CAA codon into UAA Stop codon in the transcript of Apolipoprotein B (ApoB), a protein crucial in the transport of lipids in the blood. Catalytically inactive mutants of APOBEC1 have a dominant negative effect on its activity, as they compete for the targeting to the ApoB mRNA. Here we show that catalytically inactive chimeras of APOBEC1 restricted to different compartments of the cell present different abilities to titrate APOBEC1-mediated RNA editing, and that the ability of APOBEC1 to interact with these mutants is the main determinant for its activity. Our results demonstrate that dimerisation, a feature common to other APOBECs targeting DNA, is not required for APOBEC1 activity on mRNA. Furthermore, APOBEC1-mediated RNA editing is a dynamic process where interplay among the components of the editing complex is regulated through the balance between availability of A1CF, one of APOBEC1 cofactors, and nuclear degradation of APOBEC1.

scholarly journals Next-generation cytosine base editors with minimized unguided DNA and RNA off-target events and high on-target activity

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi Yu ◽  
Thomas Leete ◽  
David A. Born ◽  
Lauren Young ◽  
Luis A. Barrera ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cytidine Deaminase ◽  
Point Mutations ◽  
Next Generation ◽  
Dna Double Strand Breaks ◽  
Cytosine Deamination ◽  
Base Editing ◽  
Dna And Rna ◽  
Fold Reduction ◽  
Target Dna ◽  
Target Activity

Abstract/introductory paragraphCytosine base editors (CBEs) are molecular machines which enable efficient and programmable reversion of T•A to C•G point mutations in the human genome without induction of DNA double strand breaks1, 2. Recently, the foundational cytosine base editor (CBE) ‘BE3’, containing rAPOBEC1, was reported to induce unguided, genomic DNA3, 4 and cellular RNA5 cytosine deamination when expressed in living cells. To mitigate spurious off-target events, we developed a sensitive, high-throughput cellular assay to select next-generation CBEs that display reduced spurious deamination profiles relative to rAPOBEC1-based CBEs, whilst maintaining equivalent or superior on-target editing frequencies. We screened 153 CBEs containing cytidine deaminase enzymes with diverse sequences and identified four novel CBEs with the most promising on/off target ratios. These spurious-deamination-minimized CBEs (BE4 with either RrA3F, AmAPOBEC1, SsAPOBEC3B, or PpAPOBEC1) were further optimized for superior on- and off-target DNA editing profiles through structure-guided mutagenesis of the deaminase domain. These next-generation CBEs display comparable overall DNA on-target editing frequencies, whilst eliciting a 10- to 49-fold reduction in C-to-U edits in the transcriptome of treated cells, and up to a 33-fold overall reduction in unguided off-target DNA deamination relative to BE4 containing rAPOBEC1. Taken together, these next-generation CBEs represent a new collection of base editing tools for applications in which minimization of spurious deamination is desirable and high on-target activity is required.

scholarly journals Comprehensive interrogation of the ADAR2 deaminase domain for engineering enhanced RNA base-editing activity, functionality and specificity

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dhruva Katrekar ◽  
Nathan Palmer ◽  
Yichen Xiang ◽  
Anushka Saha ◽  
Dario Meluzzi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Rna Editing ◽  
Rna Motifs ◽  
Mutagenesis Screen ◽  
Base Editing ◽  
Adenosine Deaminases ◽  
Editing Activity ◽  
Exogenous Delivery ◽  
Deaminase Domain ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Increased Activity

ABSTRACTAdenosine deaminases acting on RNA (ADARs) can be repurposed to enable programmable RNA editing, however their exogenous delivery leads to transcriptome-wide off-targeting, and additionally, enzymatic activity on certain RNA motifs, especially those flanked by a 5’ guanosine is very low thus limiting their utility as a transcriptome engineering toolset. To address this, we explored comprehensive ADAR2 protein engineering via three approaches: First, we performed a novel deep mutational scan of the deaminase domain that enabled direct coupling of variants to corresponding RNA editing activity. Experimentally measuring the impact of every amino acid substitution across 261 residues, i.e. ~5000 variants, on RNA editing, revealed intrinsic domain properties, and also several mutations that greatly enhanced RNA editing. Second, we performed a domain-wide mutagenesis screen to identify variants that increased activity at 5’-GA-3’ motifs, and discovered novel mutants that enabled robust RNA editing. Third, we engineered the domain at the fragment level to create split deaminases. Notably, compared to full-length deaminase overexpression, split-deaminases resulted in >1000 fold more specific RNA editing. Taken together, we anticipate this comprehensive deaminase engineering will enable broader utility of the ADAR toolset for RNA biotechnology and therapeutic applications.

scholarly journals A large-scale genome and transcriptome sequencing analysis reveals the mutation landscapes induced by high-activity adenine base editors in plants

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaofang Li ◽  
Lang Liu ◽  
Wenxian Sun ◽  
Xueping Zhou ◽  
Huanbin Zhou
Keyword(s):  
High Activity ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Comprehensive Evaluation ◽  
Rice Genome ◽  
Plant Genome ◽  
Sequencing Analysis ◽  
Single Nucleotide Variants ◽  
Base Editing ◽  
Dna And Rna ◽  
Adenine Base

The high-activity adenine base editors (ABEs), engineered with the recently-developed tRNA adenosine deaminases (TadA8e and TadA9), show robust base editing activity but raise concerns about off-target effects. In this study, we performed a comprehensive evaluation of ABE8e- and ABE9-induced DNA and RNA mutations in Oryza sativa. Whole-genome sequencing analysis of plants transformed with four ABEs, including SpCas9n-TadA8e, SpCas9n-TadA9, SpCas9n-NG-TadA8e, and SpCas9n-NG-TadA9, revealed that ABEs harboring TadA9 lead to a higher number of off-target A-to-G (A>G) single-nucleotide variants (SNVs), and that those harboring the CRISPR/SpCas9n-NG lead to a higher total number of off-target SNVs in the rice genome. An analysis of the T-DNAs carrying the ABEs indicated that the on-target mutations could be introduced before and/or after T-DNA integration into plant genomes, with more off-target A>G SNVs forming after the ABEs had integrated into the plant genome. Furthermore, we detected off-target A>G RNA mutations in plants with high expression of ABEs but not in plants with low expression of ABEs. The off-target A>G RNA mutations tended to cluster, while off-target A>G DNA mutations rarely clustered.Our findings that Cas proteins, TadA variants, temporal expression of ABEs, and expression levels of ABEs contribute to ABE specificity in rice provide insight into the specificity of ABEs and suggest alternative ways to increase ABE specificity besides engineering TadA variants.

scholarly journals Structure-guided engineering of adenine base editor with minimized RNA off-targeting activity

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianan Li ◽  
Wenxia Yu ◽  
Shisheng Huang ◽  
Susu Wu ◽  
Liping Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Rna Editing ◽  
Potential Interaction ◽  
Reporter System ◽  
Independent Manner ◽  
Robust Detection ◽  
Guide Rna ◽  
Highly Efficient ◽  
Adenine Base

AbstractBoth adenine base editors (ABEs) and cytosine base editors (CBEs) have been recently revealed to induce transcriptome-wide RNA off-target editing in a guide RNA-independent manner. Here we construct a reporter system containing E.coli Hokb gene with a tRNA-like motif for robust detection of RNA editing activities as the optimized ABE, ABEmax, induces highly efficient A-to-I (inosine) editing within an E.coli tRNA-like structure. Then, we design mutations to disrupt the potential interaction between TadA and tRNAs in structure-guided principles and find that Arginine 153 (R153) within TadA is essential for deaminating RNAs with core tRNA-like structures. Two ABEmax or mini ABEmax variants (TadA* fused with Cas9n) with deletion of R153 within TadA and/or TadA* (named as del153/del153* and mini del153) are successfully engineered, showing minimized RNA off-targeting, but comparable DNA on-targeting activities. Moreover, R153 deletion in recently reported ABE8e or ABE8s can also largely reduce their RNA off-targeting activities. Taken together, we develop a strategy to generate engineered ABEs (eABEs) with minimized RNA off-targeting activities.

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