Non-Mendelian Dominant Maternal Effects Caused by CRISPR/Cas9 Transgenic Components in Drosophila melanogaster.

ABSTRACT: The CRISPR/Cas9 system has revolutionized genomic editing. The Cas9 endonuclease targets DNA via an experimentally determined guide RNA (gRNA). This results in a double-strand break at the target site . We generated transgenic Drosophila melanogaster in which the CRISPR/Cas9 system was used to target a GAL4 transgene in vivo To our surprise, progeny whose genomes did not contain CRISPR/Cas9 components were still capable of mutating GAL4 sequences. We demonstrate this effect was caused by maternal deposition of Cas9 and gRNAs into the embryo, leading to extensive GAL4 mutations in both somatic and germline tissues. This serves as a cautionary observation on the effects of maternal contributions when conducting experiments using genomically encoded CRISPR/C

SUBMITTER: Lin CC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5100867 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature