Publications
Synthetic BiologyJun 2021 DOI:
10.1093/synbio/ysab014

Rational gRNA Design Based on Transcription Factor Binding Data

Bergenholm, David; Dabirian, Yasaman; Ferreira, Raphael; Siewers, Verena; David, Florian; Nielsen, Jens
Product Used
Genes
Abstract
The CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats)/Cas9 system has become a standard tool in many genome engineering endeavors. The endonuclease-deficient version of Cas9 (dCas9) is also a powerful programmable tool for gene regulation. In this study, we made use of Saccharomyces cerevisiae transcription factor binding data to obtain a better understanding of the interplay between transcription factor binding and binding of dCas9 fused to an activator domain, VPR. More specifically, we targeted dCas9-VPR towards binding sites of Gcr1-Gcr2 and Tye7 present in several promoters of genes encoding enzymes engaged in the central carbon metabolism. From our data, we observed an upregulation of gene expression when dCas9-VPR was targeted next to a transcription factor binding motif, whereas downregulation or no change was observed when dCas9 was bound on a transcription factor motif. This suggests a steric competition between dCas9 and the specific transcription factor. Integrating transcription factor binding data, therefore, proved to be useful for designing gRNAs for CRISPRi/a applications.
Product Used
Genes

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