Cre-Controlled CRISPR mutagenesis provides fast and easy conditional gene inactivation in zebrafish

Nat Commun. 2021 Feb 18;12(1):1125. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-21427-6.

Abstract

Conditional gene inactivation is a powerful tool to determine gene function when constitutive mutations result in detrimental effects. The most commonly used technique to achieve conditional gene inactivation employs the Cre/loxP system and its ability to delete DNA sequences flanked by two loxP sites. However, targeting a gene with two loxP sites is time and labor consuming. Here, we show Cre-Controlled CRISPR (3C) mutagenesis to circumvent these issues. 3C relies on gRNA and Cre-dependent Cas9-GFP expression from the same transgene. Exogenous or transgenic supply of Cre results in Cas9-GFP expression and subsequent mutagenesis of the gene of interest. The recombined cells become fluorescently visible enabling their isolation and subjection to various omics techniques. Hence, 3C mutagenesis provides a valuable alternative to the production of loxP-flanked alleles. It might even enable the conditional inactivation of multiple genes simultaneously and should be applicable to other model organisms amenable to single integration transgenesis.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Base Sequence
  • Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats / genetics*
  • Eye / embryology
  • Eye / metabolism
  • Gene Silencing*
  • Green Fluorescent Proteins / metabolism
  • Integrases / metabolism*
  • Monophenol Monooxygenase / genetics
  • Mutagenesis / genetics*
  • Pigmentation / genetics
  • RNA, Messenger / genetics
  • RNA, Messenger / metabolism
  • Time Factors
  • Transgenes
  • Zebrafish / genetics*

Substances

  • RNA, Messenger
  • Green Fluorescent Proteins
  • Monophenol Monooxygenase
  • Cre recombinase
  • Integrases