Title: CRISPR-COPIES: an in silico platform for discovery of neutral integration sites for CRISPR/Cas-facilitated gene integration

Journal Article · · Nucleic Acids Research

Abstract The CRISPR/Cas system has emerged as a powerful tool for genome editing in metabolic engineering and human gene therapy. However, locating the optimal site on the chromosome to integrate heterologous genes using the CRISPR/Cas system remains an open question. Selecting a suitable site for gene integration involves considering multiple complex criteria, including factors related to CRISPR/Cas-mediated integration, genetic stability, and gene expression. Consequently, identifying such sites on specific or different chromosomal locations typically requires extensive characterization efforts. To address these challenges, we have developed CRISPR-COPIES, a COmputational Pipeline for the Identification of CRISPR/Cas-facilitated intEgration Sites. This tool leverages ScaNN, a state-of-the-art model on the embedding-based nearest neighbor search for fast and accurate off-target search, and can identify genome-wide intergenic sites for most bacterial and fungal genomes within minutes. As a proof of concept, we utilized CRISPR-COPIES to characterize neutral integration sites in three diverse species: Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Cupriavidus necator, and HEK293T cells. In addition, we developed a user-friendly web interface for CRISPR-COPIES (https://biofoundry.web.illinois.edu/copies/). We anticipate that CRISPR-COPIES will serve as a valuable tool for targeted DNA integration and aid in the characterization of synthetic biology toolkits, enable rapid strain construction to produce valuable biochemicals, and support human gene and cell therapy applications.

Research Organization:
Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI), Urbana, IL (United States); Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0018420
OSTI ID:
2301778
Journal Information:
Nucleic Acids Research, Journal Name: Nucleic Acids Research Journal Issue: 6 Vol. 52; ISSN 0305-1048
Publisher:
Oxford University PressCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United Kingdom
Language:
English

References (76)

Construction of ajmalicine and sanguinarine de novo biosynthetic pathways using stable integration sites in yeast journal January 2022
Human Genomic Safe Harbors and the Suicide Gene-Based Safeguard System for iPSC-Based Cell Therapy journal March 2019
Cloning and disruption of the Pichia pastoris ARG1, ARG2, ARG3, HIS1, HIS2, HIS5, HIS6 genes and their use as auxotrophic markers journal March 2005
Characterization of chromosomal integration sites for heterologous gene expression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae journal October 2009
Therapeutic cell engineering: designing programmable synthetic genetic circuits in mammalian cells journal September 2021
High-level secretion of human growth hormone by Escherichia coli journal January 1987
HIV-1 Integration in the Human Genome Favors Active Genes and Local Hotspots journal August 2002
A novel series of vectors for chromosomal integration in fission yeast journal September 2008
Chromatin Architecture of the Human Genome journal September 2004
Chromatin Position Effects Assayed by Thousands of Reporters Integrated in Parallel journal August 2013
High-Resolution Mapping of the Escherichia coli Chromosome Reveals Positions of High and Low Transcription journal March 2019
The sound of silence: Transgene silencing in mammalian cell engineering journal December 2022
The influence of eukaryotic chromatin state on CRISPR–Cas9 editing efficiencies journal February 2019
Discovery and validation of human genomic safe harbor sites for gene and cell therapies journal January 2022
ANN-Benchmarks: A benchmarking tool for approximate nearest neighbor algorithms journal January 2020
Screening neutral sites for metabolic engineering of methylotrophic yeast Ogataea polymorpha journal June 2021
Metabolic Engineering of Cupriavidus necator H16 for Sustainable Biofuels from CO2 journal April 2021
Microbial production of indolylglucosinolate through engineering of a multi-gene pathway in a versatile yeast expression platform journal March 2012
The yeast platform engineered for synthetic gRNA-landing pads enables multiple gene integrations by a single gRNA/Cas9 system journal March 2021
A landing pad system for multicopy gene integration in Issatchenkia orientalis journal July 2023
Metabolic Engineering: Methodologies and Applications journal December 2022
Identifying Improved Sites for Heterologous Gene Integration Using ATAC-seq journal August 2020
Synthetic Biology Toolkit for Marker-Less Integration of Multigene Pathways into Pichia pastoris via CRISPR/Cas9 journal January 2022
Global Transcriptome-Guided Identification of Neutral Sites for Engineering Synechococcus elongatus PCC 11801 journal May 2023
Targeting Specificity of the CRISPR/Cas9 System journal September 2017
A Highly Characterized Synthetic Landing Pad System for Precise Multicopy Gene Integration in Yeast journal October 2018
Gene Insertion Into Genomic Safe Harbors for Human Gene Therapy journal April 2016
High-level semi-synthetic production of the potent antimalarial artemisinin journal April 2013
The CRISPR-associated DNA-cleaving enzyme Cpf1 also processes precursor CRISPR RNA journal April 2016
DNA targeting specificity of RNA-guided Cas9 nucleases journal July 2013
Optimized sgRNA design to maximize activity and minimize off-target effects of CRISPR-Cas9 journal January 2016
Applications of CRISPR technologies in research and beyond journal September 2016
MMseqs2 enables sensitive protein sequence searching for the analysis of massive data sets journal October 2017
Internal guide RNA interactions interfere with Cas9-mediated cleavage journal June 2016
Mobile elements drive recombination hotspots in the core genome of Staphylococcus aureus journal May 2014
A largely random AAV integration profile after LPLD gene therapy journal June 2013
High-efficiency yeast transformation using the LiAc/SS carrier DNA/PEG method journal January 2007
Gene therapy for spinal muscular atrophy: the Qatari experience journal July 2021
Towards a fully automated algorithm driven platform for biosystems design journal November 2019
Multi-functional genome-wide CRISPR system for high throughput genotype–phenotype mapping journal December 2019
Genome dependent Cas9/gRNA search time underlies sequence dependent gRNA activity journal August 2021
Genome-wide functional screens enable the prediction of high activity CRISPR-Cas9 and -Cas12a guides in Yarrowia lipolytica journal February 2022
PlasmidMaker is a versatile, automated, and high throughput end-to-end platform for plasmid construction journal May 2022
SHIELD: a platform for high-throughput screening of barrier-type DNA elements in human cells journal September 2023
The evolution, evolvability and engineering of gene regulatory DNA journal March 2022
Carbon-negative production of acetone and isopropanol by gas fermentation at industrial pilot scale journal February 2022
Effective gene expression prediction from sequence by integrating long-range interactions journal October 2021
Plant nuclear factor Y (NF-Y) B subunits confer drought tolerance and lead to improved corn yields on water-limited acres journal October 2007
Interference by clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR) RNA is governed by a seed sequence journal June 2011
Machine learning approach to gene essentiality prediction: a review journal April 2021
Cas-OFFinder: a fast and versatile algorithm that searches for potential off-target sites of Cas9 RNA-guided endonucleases journal January 2014
Expanding the neutral sites for integrated gene expression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae journal August 2022
GuideMaker: Software to design CRISPR-Cas guide RNA pools in non-model genomes journal April 2022
DEG 15, an update of the Database of Essential Genes that includes built-in analysis tools journal October 2020
Database resources of the national center for biotechnology information journal December 2021
CRISPR–Cas9 gRNA efficiency prediction: an overview of predictive tools and the role of deep learning journal March 2022
CRISPR/Cas9 systems have off-target activity with insertions or deletions between target DNA and guide RNA sequences journal May 2014
A multi-landing pad DNA integration platform for mammalian cell engineering journal April 2018
Improved sgRNA design in bacteria via genome-wide activity profiling journal June 2018
CHOPCHOP v3: expanding the CRISPR web toolbox beyond genome editing journal May 2019
CRISPR-SE: a brute force search engine for CRISPR design journal January 2021
EasyClone: method for iterative chromosomal integration of multiple genes Saccharomyces cerevisiae journal March 2014
Gene therapy for follistatin mitigates systemic metabolic inflammation and post-traumatic arthritis in high-fat diet–induced obesity journal May 2020
Location Effects of a Reporter Gene on Expression Levels and on Native Protein Synthesis in Lactococcus lactis and Saccharomyces cerevisiae journal August 2001
BLAST+: architecture and applications journal January 2009
Detection of phase-dependent transcriptomic changes and Rubisco-mediated CO2 fixation into poly (3-hydroxybutyrate) under heterotrophic condition in Ralstonia eutropha H16 based on RNA-seq and gene deletion analyses journal July 2013
CROPSR: an automated platform for complex genome-wide CRISPR gRNA design and validation journal February 2022
WU-CRISPR: characteristics of functional guide RNAs for the CRISPR/Cas9 system journal November 2015
Genomics and epigenetics guided identification of tissue-specific genomic safe harbors journal September 2022
Genome-wide landscape of position effects on heterogeneous gene expression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae journal July 2017
Synthetic biology toolkit for engineering Cupriviadus necator H16 as a platform for CO2 valorization journal November 2021
Challenges and opportunities of bioprocessing 5-aminolevulinic acid using genetic and metabolic engineering: a critical review journal October 2021
Murine Leukemias with Retroviral Insertions at Lmo2 Are Predictive of the Leukemias Induced in SCID-X1 Patients Following Retroviral Gene Therapy journal May 2009
Golden Gate Shuffling: A One-Pot DNA Shuffling Method Based on Type IIs Restriction Enzymes journal May 2009
HEK293 Cell Line as a Platform to Produce Recombinant Proteins and Viral Vectors journal December 2021
Selection of chromosomal DNA libraries using a multiplex CRISPR system journal August 2014