A Cas9-transcription factor fusion protein enhances homology-directed repair efficiency

Precise gene insertion or replacement in cells and animals that requires incorporation of a foreign DNA template into the genome target site by homology-directed repair (HDR) remains an inefficient process. One of the limiting factors for the inefficiency of HDR lies in the limited chance for colocalization of the donor template and target in the huge genome space. We here present a strategy to enhance HDR efficiency in animal cells by spatial and temporal colocalization of the donor and Cas9 by coupling the CRISPR system with a transcription factor (TF). We first identified that THAP domain-containing 11 (THAP11) can coordinate with CRISPR/Cas9 to increase HDR stably through screening multiple TFs from different species. We next designed donor structures with different fusion patterns with TF-specific DNA-binding motifs and found that appending two copies of THAP11-specific DNA binding motifs to both ends of the double-stranded donor DNA has an optimal effect to promote HDR. The THAP11-fused CRISPR system achieved more than twofold increase in HDR-mediated knock-in efficiency for enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) tagging of endogenous genes in 293T cells. We also demonstrated up to 6-fold increases of knock-in through the combinational use of the TF-fused CRISPR and valnemulin, a recently discovered small-molecule HDR enhancer. This modified CRISPR system provides a simple but highly efficient platform to facilitate CRISPR-mediated KI manipulations.

Automated summary

This study presents a strategy to enhance HDR efficiency in animal cells by spatial and temporal colocalization of the donor and Cas9 through coupling the CRISPR system with the transcription factor THAP11. By appending THAP11-specific DNA binding motifs to the double-stranded donor DNA, the HDR efficiency can be significantly improved. The THAP11-fused CRISPR system achieved a more than twofold increase in HDR-mediated knock-in efficiency, and up to 6-fold increase can be achieved through combinational use with the small-molecule HDR enhancer valnemulin.