Project description:Base editors (BEs) shed new light on correcting disease-related T-to-C mutations. However, current rat APOBEC1-based BEs are less efficient in editing cytosines in highly-methylated regions or in GpC context. By screening a variety of APOBEC/AID deaminases, we showed that human APOBEC3A-conjugated BE and its engineered forms can mediate efficient C-to-T base editing in all examined contexts, including regions with high-methylation levels and GpC dinucleotides, which extends base editing scope.
Project description:The advent of base editors (BEs) holds a promising potential in correcting pathogenic-related point mutations to treat relevant diseases. Unexpectedly, Cas9 nickase (nCas9) derived BEs lead to DNA double-strand breaks, which can trigger unwanted cellular responses including a p53-mediated DNA damage response (DDR). Here, we showed that catalytically-dead-Cas12a (dCas12a) conjugated BEs induced no DNA break and minimally activated DDR proteins including H2AX, ATM, ATR and p53. We further developed a BEACON (Base Editing induced by human APOBEC3A and Cas12a without DNA break) system that fuses dCas12a to the engineered APOBEC3A with enhanced deamination efficiency and editing specificity. By using BEACON, efficient C-to-T editing was achieved at levels comparable to AncBE4max and only low levels of DDR and RNA off-target (OT) effects were triggered in mammalian cells. BEACON also induced in vivo base editing in mouse embryos and targeted C-to-T conversions were detected in F0 mice.
Project description:The advent of base editors (BEs) holds a promising potential in correcting pathogenic-related point mutations to treat relevant diseases. Unexpectedly, Cas9 nickase (nCas9) derived BEs lead to DNA double-strand breaks, which can trigger unwanted cellular responses including a p53-mediated DNA damage response (DDR). Here, we showed that catalytically-dead-Cas12a (dCas12a) conjugated BEs induced no DNA break and minimally activated DDR proteins including H2AX, ATM, ATR and p53. We further developed a BEACON (Base Editing induced by human APOBEC3A and Cas12a without DNA break) system that fuses dCas12a to the engineered APOBEC3A with enhanced deamination efficiency and editing specificity. By using BEACON, efficient C-to-T editing was achieved at levels comparable to AncBE4max and only low levels of DDR and RNA off-target (OT) effects were triggered in mammalian cells. BEACON also induced in vivo base editing in mouse embryos and targeted C-to-T conversions were detected in F0 mice.
Project description:Base editors (BEs) shed new light on correcting disease-related T-to-C mutations. However, current rat APOBEC1-based BEs are less efficient in editing cytosines in highly-methylated regions or in GpC context. By screening a variety of APOBEC/AID deaminases, we showed that human APOBEC3A-conjugated BE and its engineered forms can mediate efficient C-to-T base editing in all examined contexts, including regions with high-methylation levels and GpC dinucleotides, which extends base editing scope.
Project description:Macrophages acquire a pro-inflammatory M1 phenotype in response to microbial products or pro-inflammatory cytokines through incompletely understood molecular mechanisms. We recently described the induction of APOBEC3A-mediated cellular site-specific cytosine-to-uracil (C>U) RNA editing during M1 macrophage polarization. However, the functional significance of this RNA editing is unknown. Here, we find that cellular RNA editing by APOBEC3A can also be induced by influenza or Maraba virus infections in normal macrophages, and by interferons in tumor-associated macrophages. Gene knockdown and RNA Seq analyses show that APOBEC3A induces C>U RNA editing (range 7%-88%) of 209 exonic or UTR sites in 203 genes during M1 polarization of monocyte-derived macrophages. The highest level of deleterious protein-recoding C>U RNA editing is observed in THOC5, which encodes a key nuclear protein implicated in the export of mRNAs during M-CSF driven macrophage differentiation. Knockdown of APOBEC3A in M1 macrophages reduces pro-inflammatory IL6, IL23A, and IL12B gene expression, CD80 and CD86 surface protein expression, and TNF-α, IL-1β and IL-6 cytokine secretion, and increases glycolysis and glycolytic capacity. These results demonstrate that APOBEC3A cytidine deaminase plays an important role in transcriptomic and functional polarization of pro-inflammatory M1 macrophages.
Project description:N 4-methylcytosine (4mC) is a natural DNA modification occurring in thermophiles and plays important roles in restriction-modification (R-M) systems in bacterial genomes. However, the precise location and sequence context of 4mC in the whole genome are limited. In this study, we developed an APOBEC3A-mediated deamination sequencing (4mC-AMD-seq) method for genome-wide mapping of 4mC at single-base resolution. In the 4mC-AMD-seq method, cytosine and 5-methylcytosine (5mC) are deaminated by APOBEC3A (A3A) protein to generate uracil and thymine, both of which are read as thymine in sequencing, while 4mC is resistant to deamination and therefore read as cytosine. Thus, the readouts of cytosines from sequencing could manifest the original 4mC sites in genomes. With the 4mC-AMD-seq method, we achieved the genome-wide mapping of 4mC in Deinococcus radiodurans (D. radiodurans). In addition, we confirmed that 4mC, but not 5mC, was the major modification in the D. radiodurans genome. We identified 1586 4mC sites in the genome of D. radiodurans, among which 564 sites were located in the CCGCGG motif. The average methylation levels in the CCGCGG motif and non-CCGCGG sequence were 70.0% and 22.8%, respectively. We envision that the 4mC-AMD-seq method will facilitate the investigation of 4mC functions, including the 4mC-involved R-M systems, in uncharacterized but potentially useful strains.
Project description:Adenine and cytosine base editors (ABEs and CBEs) represent a new genome editing technology that allows the programmable installation of A-to-G or C-to-T alterations on DNA. We engineered Streptococcus pyogenes Cas9-based adenine and cytosine base editor (SpACE) that enables efficient simultaneous introduction of A-to-G and C-to-T substitutions in the same base editing window on DNA.
Project description:C-to-T base editing mediated by CRISPR/Cas9 base editors (BEs) needs a G/C-rich PAM and the editing fidelity is compromised by unwanted indels and non-C-to-T substitutions. We developed CRISPR/Cpf1-based BEs to recognize a T-rich PAM and induce efficient C-to-T editing with few indels and/or non-C-to-T substitutions. The requirement of editing fidelity in therapeutic-related trials necessitates the development of CRISPR/Cpf1-based BEs, which also facilitates base editing in A/T-rich regions.