Generation of beta-lactoglobulin knock-out goats using CRISPR/Cas9

PLoS One. 2017 Oct 10;12(10):e0186056. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0186056. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

Goat's milk, considered a substitute for cow's milk, has a high nutritional value. However, goat's milk contains various allergens, predominantly β-lactoglobulin (BLG). In this study, we employed the CRISPR/Cas9 system to target the BLG locus in goat fibroblasts for sgRNA optimization and generate BLG knock-out goats through co-injection of Cas9 mRNA and small guide RNAs (sgRNAs) into goat embryos at the one-cell stage. We firstly tested sgRNA editing efficiencies in goat fibroblast cells, and approximately 8.00%-9.09% of the cells were modified in single sgRNA-guided targeting experiment. Among the kids, the genome-targeting efficiencies of single sgRNA were 12.5% (10 ng/μL sg1) and 0% (10 ng/μL sg2) and efficiencies of dual sgRNAs were 25.0% (25 ng/μL sg2+sg3 group) and 28.6% (50 ng/μL sg2+sg3 group). Relative expression of BLG in BLG knock-out goat mammary glands significantly (p < 0.01) decreased as well as other milk protein coding genes, such as CSN1S1, CSN1S2, CSN2, CSN3 and LALBA (p < 0.05). As expected, BLG protein had been abolished in the milk of the BLG knock-out goat. In addition, most of the targeted kids were chimeric (3/4), and their various body tissues were edited simultaneously. Our study thus provides a basis for optimizing the quality of goat milk, which can be applied to biomedical and agricultural research.

MeSH terms

  • Allergens / genetics
  • Animals
  • Animals, Genetically Modified
  • COP9 Signalosome Complex
  • CRISPR-Cas Systems*
  • Chimerism
  • Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats
  • Embryo Transfer / methods
  • Embryo, Mammalian
  • Female
  • Fibroblasts / cytology
  • Fibroblasts / metabolism
  • Gene Deletion*
  • Gene Editing*
  • Gene Expression
  • Genetic Loci
  • Goats
  • Lactation / physiology
  • Lactoglobulins / deficiency
  • Lactoglobulins / genetics*
  • Male
  • Microinjections
  • Milk / chemistry*
  • Nuclear Proteins / genetics
  • Nuclear Proteins / metabolism
  • Primary Cell Culture
  • Protein Kinases / genetics
  • Protein Kinases / metabolism
  • Protein Subunits / genetics
  • Protein Subunits / metabolism
  • RNA, Guide, CRISPR-Cas Systems / genetics
  • RNA, Guide, CRISPR-Cas Systems / metabolism

Substances

  • Allergens
  • Lactoglobulins
  • Nuclear Proteins
  • Protein Subunits
  • RNA, Guide, CRISPR-Cas Systems
  • Protein Kinases
  • COP9 Signalosome Complex

Grants and funding

This work is financially supported by the China National Program for Transgenic Animal (2014ZX08008-004) and the National Nature Science Foundation of China (No. 31272443). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.