Recording gene expression order in DNA by CRISPR addition of retron barcodes.

ABSTRACT: Biological processes depend on the differential expression of genes over time, but methods to make physical recordings of these processes are limited. Here we report a molecular system for making time-ordered recordings of transcriptional events into living genomes. We do this through engineered RNA barcodes, based on prokaryotic retrons¹, that are reverse transcribed into DNA and integrated into the genome using the CRISPR-Cas system². The unidirectional integration of barcodes by CRISPR integrases enables reconstruction of transcriptional event timing based on a physical record through simple, logical rules rather than relying on pretrained classifiers or post hoc inferential methods. For disambiguation in the field, we will refer to this system as a Retro-Cascorder

SUBMITTER: Bhattarai-Kline S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9357182 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature