Correction of a CFTR/G542X Mutation Using CRISPR/Cas9 Editing in Ovine-bovine Interspecies Embryos

Abstract

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a human genetic disease caused by mutations in the CF transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene. Correction of CFTR mutations at embryo stage could be a permanent solution to cure this disease. To assess the efficiency of CFTR/G542X mutation correction in vitro by CRISPR/Cas9, we utilized embryos generated by ovine-bovine interspecies somatic cell nuclear transfer (iSCNT) due to a limited access to sheep oocytes. First, we evaluated the developmental capacity of reconstructed iSCNT embryos. These embryos were able to develop to 16-cell stage, allowing for individual embryo genotyping. Then, we optimized the concentrations of Cas9:gRNA ribonucleoprotein (RNP) for 1-cell stage embryo injection. Genotyping results showed that we achieved high efficiencies (88.9–100%) of indel mutations at the target locus after injection of different concentrations of RNP. When an RNP (0.09 µg/µl:2.3 µM) was co-injected with a ssODN (18 µM), the G542X mutation was corrected via the homology-directed repair in 11.1% (1/9) of iSCNT embryos. Taken together, we developed an effective strategy to correct the CFTR/G542X mutation in ovine-bovine iSCNT embryos by CRISRP/Cas9. Our strategy overcomes the limitation of oocyte source and provides the opportunity of mimicking the editing of any other genes in one-cell embryos of different species.