Sources of Error in Mammalian Genetic Screens.

ABSTRACT: Genetic screens are invaluable tools for dissection of biological phenomena. Optimization of such screens to enhance discovery of candidate genes and minimize false positives is thus a critical aim. Here, we report several sources of error common to pooled genetic screening techniques used in mammalian cell culture systems, and demonstrate methods to eliminate these errors. We find that reverse transcriptase-mediated recombination during retroviral replication can lead to uncoupling of molecular tags, such as DNA barcodes (BCs), from their associated library elements, leading to chimeric proviral genomes in which BCs are paired to incorrect ORFs, shRNAs, etc This effect depends on the length of homologous sequence between unique elements, and can be minimized with careful vector design. Fu

SUBMITTER: Sack LM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5015935 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature