Indel Detection following CRISPR/Cas9 Mutagenesis using High-resolution Melt Analysis in the Mosquito Aedes aegypti. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Mosquito gene editing has become routine in several laboratories with the establishment of systems such as transcription-activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs), zinc-finger nucleases (ZFNs), and homing endonucleases (HEs). More recently, clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated protein 9 (Cas9) technology has offered an easier and cheaper alternative for precision genome engineering. Following nuclease action, DNA repair pathways will fix the broken DNA ends, often introducing indels. These out-of-frame mutations are then used for understanding gene function in the target organisms. A drawback, however, is that mutant individuals carry no dominant marker, making identification and tracking of mutant alleles challenging, especially at scales needed for many experiments. High-resolution melt analysis (HRMA) is a simple method to identify variations in nucleic acid sequences and utilizes PCR melting curves to detect such variations. This post-PCR analysis method uses fluorescent double-stranded DNA-binding dyes with instrumentation that has temperature ramp control data capture capability and is easily scaled to 96-well plate formats. Described here is a simple workflow using HRMA for the rapid detection of CRISPR/Cas9-induced indels and the establishment of mutant lines in the mosquito Ae. aegypti. Critically, all steps can be performed with a small amount of leg tissue and do not require sacrificing the organism, allowing genetic crosses or phenotyping assays to be performed after genotyping.

published proceedings

  • J Vis Exp

altmetric score

  • 3.25

author list (cited authors)

  • Kojin, B. B., Tsujimoto, H., Jakes, E., O'Leary, S., & Adelman, Z. N.

citation count

  • 1

complete list of authors

  • Kojin, Bianca B||Tsujimoto, Hitoshi||Jakes, Emma||O'Leary, Sarah||Adelman, Zach N

publication date

  • January 2021