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  • Systematic discovery of recombinases for efficient integration of large DNA sequences into the human genome. Nature biotechnology Durrant, M. G., Fanton, A., Tycko, J., Hinks, M., Chandrasekaran, S. S., Perry, N. T., Schaepe, J., Du, P. P., Lotfy, P., Bassik, M. C., Bintu, L., Bhatt, A. S., Hsu, P. D. 2022

    Abstract

    Large serine recombinases (LSRs) are DNA integrases that facilitate the site-specific integration of mobile genetic elements into bacterial genomes. Only a few LSRs, such as Bxb1 and PhiC31, have been characterized to date, with limited efficiency as tools for DNA integration in human cells. In this study, we developed a computational approach to identify thousands of LSRs and their DNA attachment sites, expanding known LSR diversity by >100-fold and enabling the prediction of their insertion site specificities. We tested their recombination activity in human cells, classifying them as landing pad, genome-targeting or multi-targeting LSRs. Overall, we achieved up to seven-fold higher recombination than Bxb1 and genome integration efficiencies of 40-75% with cargo sizes over 7kb. We also demonstrate virus-free, direct integration of plasmid or amplicon libraries for improved functional genomics applications. This systematic discovery of recombinases directly from microbial sequencing data provides a resource of over 60 LSRs experimentally characterized in human cells for large-payload genome insertion without exposed DNA double-stranded breaks.

    View details for DOI 10.1038/s41587-022-01494-w

    View details for PubMedID 36217031

  • Neuronal defects in a human cellular model of 22q11.2 deletion syndrome. Nature medicine Khan, T. A., Revah, O. n., Gordon, A. n., Yoon, S. J., Krawisz, A. K., Goold, C. n., Sun, Y. n., Kim, C. H., Tian, Y. n., Li, M. Y., Schaepe, J. M., Ikeda, K. n., Amin, N. D., Sakai, N. n., Yazawa, M. n., Kushan, L. n., Nishino, S. n., Porteus, M. H., Rapoport, J. L., Bernstein, J. A., O'Hara, R. n., Bearden, C. E., Hallmayer, J. F., Huguenard, J. R., Geschwind, D. H., Dolmetsch, R. E., Paşca, S. P. 2020

    Abstract

    22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11DS) is a highly penetrant and common genetic cause of neuropsychiatric disease. Here we generated induced pluripotent stem cells from 15 individuals with 22q11DS and 15 control individuals and differentiated them into three-dimensional (3D) cerebral cortical organoids. Transcriptional profiling across 100 days showed high reliability of differentiation and revealed changes in neuronal excitability-related genes. Using electrophysiology and live imaging, we identified defects in spontaneous neuronal activity and calcium signaling in both organoid- and 2D-derived cortical neurons. The calcium deficit was related to resting membrane potential changes that led to abnormal inactivation of voltage-gated calcium channels. Heterozygous loss of DGCR8 recapitulated the excitability and calcium phenotypes and its overexpression rescued these defects. Moreover, the 22q11DS calcium abnormality could also be restored by application of antipsychotics. Taken together, our study illustrates how stem cell derived models can be used to uncover and rescue cellular phenotypes associated with genetic forms of neuropsychiatric disease.

    View details for DOI 10.1038/s41591-020-1043-9

    View details for PubMedID 32989314

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0416-0469