CAMIO: a transgenic CRISPR pipeline to create diverse targeted genome deletions in Drosophila.

janelia7_blocks-janelia7_biblio_header | block

Nucleic Acids Research. 2020 Mar 18;. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkaa177

CAMIO: a transgenic CRISPR pipeline to create diverse targeted genome deletions in Drosophila. Fly FacilityQuantitative Genomics

Chen H, Marques JG, Sugino K, Wei D, Miyares RL, Lee T

janelia7_blocks-janelia7_biblio_abstract | block

Abstract

The genome is the blueprint for an organism. Interrogating the genome, especially locating critical cis-regulatory elements, requires deletion analysis. This is conventionally performed using synthetic constructs, making it cumbersome and non-physiological. Thus, we created Cas9-mediated Arrayed Mutagenesis of Individual Offspring (CAMIO) to achieve comprehensive analysis of a targeted region of native DNA. CAMIO utilizes CRISPR that is spatially restricted to generate independent deletions in the intact Drosophila genome. Controlled by recombination, a single guide RNA is stochastically chosen from a set targeting a specific DNA region. Combining two sets increases variability, leading to either indels at 1-2 target sites or inter-target deletions. Cas9 restriction to male germ cells elicits autonomous double-strand-break repair, consequently creating offspring with diverse mutations. Thus, from a single population cross, we can obtain a deletion matrix covering a large expanse of DNA at both coarse and fine resolution. We demonstrate the ease and power of CAMIO by mapping 5'UTR sequences crucial for chinmo's post-transcriptional regulation.