• BMB Reports
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• 제54권1호
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• pp.59-69
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• 2021

The ability to read, write, and edit genomic information in living organisms can have a profound impact on research, health, economic, and environmental issues. The CRISPR/Cas system, recently discovered as an adaptive immune system in prokaryotes, has revolutionized the ease and throughput of genome editing in mammalian cells and has proved itself indispensable to the engineering of immune cells and identification of novel immune mechanisms. In this review, we summarize the CRISPR/Cas9 system and the history of its discovery and optimization. We then focus on engineering T cells and other types of immune cells, with emphasis on therapeutic applications. Last, we describe the different modifications of Cas9 and their recent applications in the genome-wide screening of immune cells.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• 제18권4호
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• pp.46.1-46.4
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• 2020

We developed the BaSDAS (Barcode-Seq Data Analysis System), a GUI-based pooled knockout screening data analysis system, to facilitate the analysis of pooled knockout screen data easily and effectively by researchers with limited bioinformatics skills. The BaSDAS supports the analysis of various pooled screening libraries, including yeast, human, and mouse libraries, and provides many useful statistical and visualization functions with a user-friendly web interface for convenience. We expect that BaSDAS will be a useful tool for the analysis of genome-wide screening data and will support the development of novel drugs based on functional genomics information.

• Molecules and Cells
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• 제39권10호
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• pp.750-755
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• 2016

Although innate color preference of motile organisms may provide clues to behavioral biases, it has remained a longstanding question. In this study, we investigated innate color preference of zebrafish larvae. A cross maze with different color sleeves around each arm was used for the color preference test (R; red, G; green, B; blue, Y; yellow). The findings showed that 5 dpf zebrafish larvae preferred blue over other colors (B > R > G > Y). To study innate color recognition further, tyrosinase mutants were generated using CRISPR/Cas9 system. As a model for oculocutaneous albinism (OCA) and color vision impairment, tyrosinase mutants demonstrated diminished color sensation, indicated mainly by hypopigmentation of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE). Due to its relative simplicity and ease, color preference screening using zebrafish larvae is suitable for high-throughput screening applications. This system may potentially be applied to the analysis of drug effects on larval behavior or the detection of sensory deficits in neurological disorder models, such as autism-related disorders, using mutant larvae generated by the CRISPR/Cas9 technique.

• BMB Reports
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• 제57권1호
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• pp.30-39
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• 2024

Directed evolution (DE) of desired locus by targeted random mutagenesis (TRM) tools is a powerful approach for generating genetic variations with novel or improved functions, particularly in complex genomes. TRM-based DE involves developing a mutant library of targeted DNA sequences and screening the variants for the desired properties. However, DE methods have for a long time been confined to bacteria and yeasts. Lately, CRISPR/Cas and DNA deaminase-based tools that circumvent enduring barriers such as longer life cycle, small library sizes, and low mutation rates have been developed to facilitate DE in native genetic environments of multicellular organisms. Notably, deaminase-based base editing-TRM (BE-TRM) tools have greatly expanded the scope and efficiency of DE schemes by enabling base substitutions and randomization of targeted DNA sequences. BE-TRM tools provide a robust platform for the continuous molecular evolution of desired proteins, metabolic pathway engineering, creation of a mutant library of desired locus to evolve novel functions, and other applications, such as predicting mutants conferring antibiotic resistance. This review provides timely updates on the recent advances in BE-TRM tools for DE, their applications in biology, and future directions for further improvements.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제26권2호
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• pp.213-225
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• 2016

To reduce attrition in drug development, it is crucial to consider the development and implementation of translational phenotypic assays as well as decipher diverse molecular mechanisms of action for new molecular entities. High-throughput fluorescence and confocal microscopes with advanced analysis software have simplified the simultaneous identification and quantification of various cellular processes through what is now referred to as high-content screening (HCS). HCS permits automated identification of modifiers of accessible and biologically relevant targets and can thus be used to detect gene interactions or identify toxic pathways of drug candidates to improve drug discovery and development processes. In this review, we summarize several HCS-compatible, biochemical, and molecular biology-driven assays, including immunohistochemistry, RNAi, reporter gene assay, CRISPR-Cas9 system, and protein-protein interactions to assess a variety of cellular processes, including proliferation, morphological changes, protein expression, localization, post-translational modifications, and protein-protein interactions. These cell-based assay methods can be applied to not only 2D cell culture but also 3D cell culture systems in a high-throughput manner.

• 생명과학회지
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• 제29권5호
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• pp.537-544
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• 2019

유전자 가위를 이용한 게놈편집 기술의 등장은 다양한 분야에서 분자육종에 대한 관심을 유발하였으며, 3세대 유전자가위 CRISPR 기술의 개발은 게놈편집을 통한 분자육종 시대를 가속화하고 있다. 본 연구에서는 최근 개발된 3세대 유전자 가위 CRISPR/Cas9을 이용하여 국내 보급품종인 백옥잠의 BmBLOS 유전자를 편집하여 돌연변이를 유도하고 유전형 및 표현형 검사를 통하여 유전자가위를 이용한 누에 분자육종가능성을 분석하고 이용기술을 확보하고자 하였다. 유전자 편집을 위하여 백옥잠의 BmBLOS 유전자의 염기서열을 구명하고, 이를 바탕으로 3종의 가이드 RNA를 합성하였다. 합성된 gRNA는 Cas9 단백질과 복합체를 형성시킨 후 BM-N 누에 세포주에 도입 후 T7 endonuclease I 분석을 통하여 편집효율이 가장 높은 B4N gRNA를 선발하였다. 누에 유전자를 편집하기 위하여 Cas9/B4N gRNA를 누에 초가 배아에 미세주사하고 사육하였다. 미세주사 후 부화율은 18% 가량으로 낮게 나타났으나 생존한 개체 중 돌연변이 발생율은 40% 이상으로 비교적 높게 나타났다. 또한 유전자 편집 G0 세대누에 중 70% 가량에서 표현형의 변화가 관찰되었고, 염기서열 분석결과 대부분의 개체에서 BmBLOS 유전자가 정상과 돌연변이가 같이 존재하는 이형접합자 형태로 나타났으며, 그 유전형 또한 모든 개체에서 다르게 나타났다. 이러한 결과에 비추어 볼 때 CRISPR/Cas9 시스템을 이용한 누에 분자육종의 가능성은 매우 높을 것으로 예상되나, 유전자 편집효율을 개선하고 동형접합자를 얻기 위한 교배 및 선발방법에 대한 지속적인 연구가 필요하다고 판단된다.

• Molecules and Cells
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• 제44권7호
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• pp.444-457
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• 2021

Although the mechanism of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) initiation through BCR/ABL oncogene has been well characterized, CML cell differentiation into erythroid lineage cells remains poorly understood. Using CRISPR-Cas9 screening, we identify Chromobox 8 (CBX8) as a negative regulator of K562 cell differentiation into erythrocytes. CBX8 is degraded via proteasomal pathway during K562 cell differentiation, which activates the expression of erythroid differentiation-related genes that are repressed by CBX8 in the complex of PRC1. During the differentiation process, the serine/threonine-protein kinase PIM1 phosphorylates serine 196 on CBX8, which contributes to CBX8 reduction. When CD235A expression levels are analyzed, the result reveals that the knockdown of PIM1 inhibits K562 cell differentiation. We also identify TRIM28 as another interaction partner of CBX8 by proteomic analysis. Intriguingly, TRIM28 maintains protein stability of CBX8 and TRIM28 loss significantly induces proteasomal degradation of CBX8, resulting in an acceleration of erythroid differentiation. Here, we demonstrate the involvement of the CBX8-TRIM28 axis during CML cell differentiation, suggesting that CBX8 and TRIM28 are promising novel targets for CML research.

• Molecules and Cells
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• 제44권3호
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• pp.127-135
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• 2021

Since the introduction of RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) as a high-throughput mRNA expression analysis tool, this procedure has been increasingly implemented to identify cell-level transcriptome changes in a myriad of model systems. However, early methods processed cell samples in bulk, and therefore the unique transcriptomic patterns of individual cells would be lost due to data averaging. Nonetheless, the recent and continuous development of new single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) toolkits has enabled researchers to compare transcriptomes at a single-cell resolution, thus facilitating the analysis of individual cellular features and a deeper understanding of cellular functions. Nonetheless, the rapid evolution of high throughput single-cell "omics" tools has created the need for effective hypothesis verification strategies. Particularly, this issue could be addressed by coupling cell engineering techniques with single-cell sequencing. This approach has been successfully employed to gain further insights into disease pathogenesis and the dynamics of differentiation trajectories. Therefore, this review will discuss the current status of cell engineering toolkits and their contributions to single-cell and genome-wide data collection and analyses.