embryonic stem cells - biorxiv.org · 29/06/2020  · 52 embryonic stem (ES) cells, followed by...

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1 Generation of clonal male and female mice through 1 CRISPR/Cas9-mediated Y chromosome deletion in 2 embryonic stem cells 3 Yiren Qin 1,4 , Bokey Wong 1,4 , Fuqiang Geng 2 , Liangwen Zhong 1 , Luis F. Parada 3 , 4 Duancheng Wen 1,* 5 1 Ronald O. Perelman and Claudia Cohen Center for Reproductive Medicine, Weill 6 Cornell Medicine, New York, NY 10065, USA 7 2 Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, 1300 York Avenue, New York, 8 NY 10065, USA 9 3 Brain Tumor Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY 10065, 10 USA. 11 4 These authors contributed equally 12 *Correspondence should be addressed to: Duancheng Wen 13 Email: [email protected] 14 . CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder. It is made available under a The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted June 29, 2020. . https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.06.29.177741 doi: bioRxiv preprint

Transcript of embryonic stem cells - biorxiv.org · 29/06/2020  · 52 embryonic stem (ES) cells, followed by...

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1

Generation of clonal male and female mice through 1

CRISPR/Cas9-mediated Y chromosome deletion in 2

embryonic stem cells 3

Yiren Qin1,4, Bokey Wong1,4, Fuqiang Geng2, Liangwen Zhong1, Luis F. Parada3, 4

Duancheng Wen1,* 5

1Ronald O. Perelman and Claudia Cohen Center for Reproductive Medicine, Weill 6

Cornell Medicine, New York, NY 10065, USA 7 2Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, 1300 York Avenue, New York, 8

NY 10065, USA 9 3Brain Tumor Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY 10065, 10

USA. 11 4These authors contributed equally 12

*Correspondence should be addressed to: Duancheng Wen 13

Email: [email protected] 14

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Abstract: Mice derived entirely from embryonic stem (ES) cells can be generated in 15

one step through tetraploid complementation. Although XY male ES cell lines are 16

commonly used in this system, occasionally, monosomic XO female all-ES mice are 17

produced through spontaneous Y chromosome loss. Here, we describe an efficient 18

method to obtain monosomic XO ES cells by CRISPR/Cas9-mediated deletion of the Y 19

chromosome allowing generation of clonal male and female mice by tetraploid 20

complementation. The monosomic XO female mice are viable and are able to produce 21

normal male and female offspring. Direct generation of clonal male and female mice 22

from the same mutant ES cells significantly accelerates the production of complex 23

genetically modified mouse models by circumventing multiple rounds of outbreeding. 24

25

Key words: Embryonic stem cells, CRISPR/Cas9, Y chromosome deletion, monosomic 26

XO mice, clonal male and female mice, tetraploid complementation, genetically modified 27

mouse models. 28

29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46

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Genetically modified (GM) animals are essential tools for the study of both 47

fundamental biology and human diseases. The production of GM animals relies on two 48

critical features: 1) stable genome modifications and, 2) germline transmission of the 49

mutations into a model system. A typical approach for creation of complex GM mice 50

involves the generation of tetra-parental chimeras from normal embryos and GM 51

embryonic stem (ES) cells, followed by multiple rounds of breeding to obtain both male 52

and female homozygotes for germline propagation of the mutations. This process is 53

time-consuming, laborious and costly, particularly if the final objective requires many 54

independent germline manipulations in the same animal. 55

Mouse ES cells derived from the inner cell mass (ICM) of blastocysts have unlimited 56

self-renewal and differentiation capacity if maintained in their ground-state pluripotency 57

(1-3). Pure ES cell-derived mice (all-ES mice) can be directly and efficiently generated 58

through tetraploid complementation, in which ground-state ES cells are injected into 59

tetraploid blastocysts such that the host 4n cells can only contribute to the placenta but 60

not somatic tissues (4-6). In this system by design, most viable animals are male, fertile 61

female all-ES mice (39 chromosome, XO) are occasionally produced from the male ES 62

cell lines (~2%) through spontaneous Y chromosome loss (7). Although the monosomic 63

XO female (39, XO) mice have been proposed for the use of GM mice production to 64

avoid mutant allele segregation during outcrossing (7), the observed low frequency 65

makes it impractical for routine use in transgenic facilities. Here, we present a novel 66

CRISPR/Cas9-mediated approach for directed elimination of the Y chromosome from 67

mouse ES cells permitting efficient generation of monosomic XO female clonal mice by 68

tetraploid complementation. The obtained monosomic XO female clonal mice are viable, 69

fertile, and produce offspring of both sexes when crossed to male clonal mice from the 70

same ES cells. 71

72

We derived new ES cell lines from hybrid F1 embryos by crossing C57BL/6j females 73

with 129S1 males. The resultant male ES cell lines used in this study were all confirmed 74

to produce normal all-ES mice by tetraploid complementation. Previous studies 75

demonstrated that targeted chromosomal generation of multiple DNA double-strand 76

breaks (DSBs) using CRISPR/Cas9 can induce directed chromosomal deletion (8, 9). 77

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Thus, to eliminate the mouse Y chromosome, we targeted the RNA-binding motif gene 78

Rbmy1a1 which has over 50 copies exclusively clustered on the short arm of the Y 79

chromosome (10) (Fig. 1A). We used synthetic gRNAs to target the Rbmy1a1 gene 80

sequences that have been successfully targeted to eliminate the Y chromosome in 81

mouse embryos and ESCs (8). We used purified Cas9 proteins with nucleus localization 82

signals (NLS) that can form functional gRNA-Cas9 ribonucleoprotein complexes (RNPs) 83

in vitro. The use of pre-assembled gRNA-Cas9 RNPs allows for more accurate control 84

of RNP composition and doses and has been shown to effectively reduce off-target 85

effects and cytotoxicity in mammalian cells (11, 12). 86

Electroporation is widely used to deliver RNPs due to the simplicity and large 87

capacity (13). We included a circular GFP reporter plasmid with the Cas9 cocktail to 88

allow for validation of successful electroporation. GFP expression could also serve as a 89

surrogate, albeit indirect marker for Cas9-induced Y chromosome elimination. Indirect 90

because plasmids and RNPs have differing modes of cell entry. Electroporation was 91

performed using the Neon transfection system and continued cell culture after 92

transfection. After ES cell colonies formed 48 hours post-electroporation, they were 93

trypsin digested and single GFP+ cells were manually picked with the aid of a 94

micromanipulator under a fluorescent microscope (Fig.1B and Supplementary 95

Fig.1A). The GFP+ cells were individually plated in 96-well dishes for clonal expansion 96

over feeder layers (Fig.1B and Supplementary Fig.1A). Cell colonies usually emerged 97

after a week in culture and were expanded in gelatin-coated cultures for 1-2 passages 98

before genotyping (Supplementary Fig.1B). 99

We first optimized our electroporation parameters by including a high dose of GFP 100

plasmid DNA (123 nM, i.e., 500 ng/reaction) in the reaction along with gRNA-Cas9 101

RNPs at the supplier-recommended concentration (1.5 µM). Under the optimal 102

electroporation condition, greater than 20% of the cells expressed GFP with minimal cell 103

death. The GFP+ cell population did not vary in GFP plasmid concentrations ranging 104

from 300-500ng although lower plasmid concentrations resulted in significantly 105

decreased electroporation efficiency (Supplementary Fig.2C). 106

We initially determined the state of the Y chromosome by genomic DNA PCR 107

analyses for presence or loss of Uba1y gene located to the short arm on the Y 108

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chromosome and distal to the targeted Rbmy1a1 gene (Fig. 1A). Three of nineteen 109

clones showed loss of Uba1y gene in the 500ng electroporation group (Fig. 1C and 110

Supplementary Fig.1D). Similarly, five of twenty-seven clones showed Uba1y gene 111

loss in the 250ng plasmid electroporation (Fig. 1C and Supplementary Fig. 1E). Thus, 112

the approximately 20% efficiency likely reflects conditions in which either: 1) CRISPR-113

induced chromosome loss occurs only in certain highly electroporation-receptive cells 114

where excessive genomic breaks overwhelm cellular DNA repair capability or; 2) the 115

excess uptake of GFP plasmids over Cas9 proteins could possibly generate a GFP+ 116

cell insufficient Cas9 to induce enough DSBs for chromosome elimination, resulting in a 117

GFP “blank-reporter”. 118

As Cas9 concentration is fixed in our system, we therefore next lowered the GFP 119

plasmid concentration in the effort to mitigate the above concerns. Indeed, at the GFP 120

plasmid concentration of 150ng, we found that seven of eight (87%) GFP+ subclones 121

had lost the Uba1y gene (Fig. 1C and 1D), and at the lowest GFP plasmid 122

concentration (50ng), 100% of the subclones (20 of 20) exhibited Uba1y gene loss (Fig. 123

1C and 1E). 124

We also examined the status of GFP- subclones in the conditions when essentially 125

~90% of GFP+ clones demonstrated efficient CRISPR/Cas9 targeting to assess 126

whether the GFP reporter had value as a surrogate marker. While seven of eight GFP+ 127

cell subclones yielded Uba1y gene loss, zero of eleven GFP- subclones had Uba1y 128

gene loss in the 150ng group (Fig. 1D and 1F). In addition, of the twenty-four subclones 129

derived from the cells blindly selected in the 50ng group, only one had Uba1y gene loss 130

(Fig. 1C). These data confirm the values of the GFP plasmid in the appropriate ratio as 131

a co-electroporation surrogate marker for successful gene transfer and likely successful 132

gene targeting. 133

134

To further assess whether loss of the Uba1y gene effectively reflects deletion of the 135

entire Y chromosome, we examined for retention of the Ssty1 gene (>35 copies) that is 136

located on the long arm of the Y chromosome (Fig. 1A). PCR analysis indicated the 137

concomitant loss of the Y chromosome long arm gene, Ssty1, in each GFP+ subclone 138

demonstrated to lack the Uba1y gene (Fig. 1E). Thus, loss of both Uba1y and Ssty1 139

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genes indicates that a large DNA segment, including the centromere of the Y 140

chromosome, has been deleted. We further karyotyped the cell subclones with 141

confirmed loss of both Uba1y and Ssty1 genes using metaphase analyses. In the 142

twenty metaphase chromosome spreads analyzed from clone-1, all cells displayed 143

complete loss of Y chromosome with 18 cells having the expected 39 chromosome, XO 144

karyotype (90%), while two cells were found with a segmental loss of 1q on 145

chromosome 1 (Fig. 1G, Supplementary Fig. 1E). In a second clone (clone-2), all 22 146

cells examined showed XO karyotype with three cells showing additional abnormalities 147

including an additional loss of 15q, chromosome 13 and an extra chromosome 14 148

(Supplementary Fig. 1F). These are likely de novo mutations arising during clonal cell 149

expansion. In aggregate, these results confirm an efficient methodology for the physical 150

elimination of Y chromosome by targeting double strand breaks in the Rbmy1a1 gene in 151

ES cells with minimal additional karyotypic perturbation. 152

153

The next critical step was to assess the potential and efficiency of CRISPR/Cas9 154

monosomic XO ES cells to generate all-ES mice by tetraploid complementation. ES 155

cells with confirmed loss of the Uba1y and Ssty1 genes were cultured and expanded for 156

three to eight passages (total passages sixteen to twenty-one). We selected six of the 157

twenty subclones (ES-1) with confirmed loss of the Uba1y gene (Fig. 1E) for blastocyst 158

injection. Single cell clones from the parental ES cells without targeting were used as 159

control. Of the six subclones tested, two clones gave rise to live pups with efficiency 160

from 20% to 25% of the embryos transferred. A similar frequency (4 of 7 subclones) and 161

efficiency (11%-21%) giving rise to all-ES mice were obtained for single cell clones of 162

the parental ES cells (Fig. 2A, Supplementary Table 1 and Table 2). These data 163

indicate that the preceding CRISPR/Cas9 manipulation of the ES cells did not adversely 164

affect their pluripotency. In another test of four subclones generated from ES lines 2 and 165

3 (two subclones for each cell line) (Fig. 1C), three were able to generate live pups with 166

similar efficiency to their parental ES cells by tetraploid complementation (Fig. 2A). As 167

expected, pups obtained from the Y-deletion subclones were all of monosomic XO (39, 168

XO) genotype and developed a morphologically normal female genital tract (Fig. 2B 169

and 2C). Meanwhile, pups produced from the parental ES cells were all exclusively 170

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males (Fig. 2C). In agreement with other studies (7, 8), the monosomic XO female pups 171

develop and mature normally to adulthood without noticeable defects (Fig. 2C). These 172

results demonstrate the feasibility of efficient deletion of the Y chromosome from mouse 173

ES cells using CRISPR/Cas9 technology allowing generation of male and female clonal 174

mice from the same ES cell line. 175

176

We further investigated monosomic XO female clonal mouse fertility of by breeding 177

with clonal males from the same parental ES cell lines. All XO female clonal mice were 178

fertile and delivered normal male and female offspring but with fewer littermates (4-8 179

pups) (Fig. 2D-2F, Supplementary Table 3). The XO mice generate two types of 180

oocytes: X oocytes (19, X) and O oocytes (19, O), that following fertilization, result in 181

four different genotypes (XX, XO, XY, OY). The X chromosome harbors essential 182

developmental genes and therefore, OY embryos are expected to fail during embryonic 183

development. To distinguish XO females from XX females in the offspring, we used 184

qPCR to analyze copy number of an X chromosome single copy gene, Bcor (Fig. 2E). 185

Monosomic XO females were also present among the offspring from the following 186

generation with a frequency of one of three or four females (Fig. 2F, Supplementary 187

Table 3). These numbers are lower than the expected Mendelian frequency of XO mice 188

among females given that half of the females are expected to be XO. These results 189

suggest that monosomic XO embryos may be less robust than XX embryos during 190

development. Partial loss of XO embryos and embryonic lethality of OY embryos during 191

the developmental stage would therefore account for the smaller litter size from XO 192

mice. More importantly, the XO female clonal mice when bred with clonal males, give 193

rise to both male and female offspring with normal genotypes (XY and XX) (Fig. 2E-2F). 194

The production of normal XX and XY offspring from XO clonal mice indicates the 195

feasibility to use XO all-ES mice for germline propagation of the complex genetic 196

mutations in mouse models. 197

198

In conclusion, we demonstrate that targeting the Y chromosome single multi-copy 199

Rbmy1a1 gene in XY male ES cells using CRISPR/Cas9 technology can efficiently 200

eliminate the Y chromosome. Importantly, the resultant 39 chromosome XO ES cells 201

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retain pluripotency and can generate viable and fertile all-ES mice that are 202

phenotypically transgender from male to female. This system provides a practical 203

strategy to manipulate sex in mice via ES cells, making it possible to expedite the 204

production of complex multi-transgene GM mouse models which are a frequent 205

necessity in current biomedical research, avoiding complex and time-consuming 206

outcrossing (Fig.2G). 207

208

209

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Methods 210

Mice and embryos 211

Animals were housed and prepared according to the protocol approved by the 212

IACUC of Weill Cornell Medical College (Protocol number: 2014-0061). Wild-type ICR 213

mice were purchased from Taconic Farms (Germantown, NY). Females were 214

superovulated at 6–8 weeks with 0.1 ml CARD HyperOva (Cosmo Bio Co., Cat. No. 215

KYD-010-EX) and 5 IU hCG (Human chorionic gonadotrophin, Sigma-Aldrich) at 216

intervals of 48 hours. The females were mated individually to males and checked for the 217

presence of a vaginal plug the following morning. Plugged females were sacrificed at 218

1.5 days post hCG injection to collect 2-cell embryos. Embryos were flushed from the 219

oviducts with KSOM+AA (Specialty Media) and subjected to electrofusion to induce 220

tetraploidy. Fused embryos were moved to new KSOM+AA micro drops covered with 221

mineral oil and cultured further in an incubator under 5% CO2 at 37°C until blastocyst 222

stage for ES cell injection. 223

Blastocyst injection 224

ES cells were trypsinized, resuspended in ES medium and kept on ice. A flat tip 225

microinjection pipette was used for ES cells injection. ES cells were picked up in the 226

end of the injection pipette and 10–15 of them were injected into each blastocyst. The 227

injected blastocysts were kept in KSOM + AA until embryo transfer. Ten injected 228

blastocysts were transferred into each uterine horn of 2.5 dpc pseudo-pregnant ICR 229

females. 230

ES cell line Derivation 231

ES cell lines were derived from hybrid F1 fertilized embryos of crossing between 232

C57BL/6j females and 129S1 males. The ES cell derivation medium comprises 75 ml 233

Knockout DMEM (SR, Gibco, Cat# 10829-018), 20 ml Knockout Serum Replacement 234

(SR, Gibco, Cat# 10828), 1 ml penicillin/streptomycin (Specialty Media, Cat#TMS-AB-235

2C), 1 ml L-glutamine (Specialty Media, Cat# TMS-001-C), 1 ml Nonessential Amino 236

Acids (Specialty Media, Cat #TMS-001-C), 1 ml Nucleosides for ES cells (Specialty 237

Media, Cat# ES-008-D), 1 ml β-mercaptoethanol (Specialty Media, Cat# ES-007-E ), 238

250 μl PD98059 (Promega product, Cat# V1191) and 20 μl recombinant mouse LIF 239

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(Chemicon International, Cat #ESG1107). The procedure to derive ES cell lines was 240

described previously (4). Briefly, cell clumps originated from the blastocysts were 241

trypsinized in 20 μl of 0.025% Trypsin and 0.75 mM EDTA (Specialty Media, Cat# SM-242

2004-C) for 5 min, and 200 μl of ES medium was added to each well to stop the 243

reaction. Colony expansion of ES cells proceeded from 48-well plates to 6-well plates 244

with feeder cells in ES medium, and then to gelatinized 25 cm2 flasks for routine culture 245

in regular ES culture medium. Cell aliquots were cryopreserved using Cell Culture 246

Freezing Medium (Specialty Media, Cat# ES-002-D) and stored in liquid nitrogen. 247

CRISPR Cas9, gRNA, and ESC electroporation 248

Two crRNAs (IDT) targeting the Rbmy1a1 gene at sequences 1) 249

TTCAAGTGATGATGGTCTCCTGG and 2) TCCTTCATGTGAAGGGAACTTGG 250

(including 3’ “NGG” PAM) (8) were annealed to a tracrRNA (IDT, cat# 1072533) at a 251

1:1:2 molar ratio to form dual duplex gRNAs by heating at 95 °C X 5 min and then 252

cooled to room temperatures. Duplex gRNAs were then incubated with recombinant 253

Cas9 protein (IDT, HiFi Cas9 nuclease V3, cat# 1081060) at room temperatures for 20 254

min to form gRNA-Cas9 ribonucleoproteins (RNPs), followed by co-delivery with a GFP 255

plasmid (Addgene, #42028). All RNAs were in Duplex Buffer (30 mM HEPES, pH 7.5; 256

100 mM potassium acetate) and DNA in TE buffer (10mM Tris-HCl, 0.1mM EDTA, pH 257

7.5). The final concentration for each electroporation is 1.8 μM gRNA and 1.5 μM Cas9 258

nuclease. 259

To prepare ES cells for electroporation with the Neon transfection system 260

(ThermoFisher), the cells were collected by trypsinization from culture, washed twice 261

with PBS (without Ca2+ and Mg2+), and resuspended in supplied R buffer at 100,000 262

cells/10ul. 10 µl of cell suspension was mixed with 0.5 µl GFP plasmid DNA (27-270 263

mM) and 0.5 µl gRNA-Cas9 RNPs, and 10 µl of the mix was loaded to a Neon 10 µl tip 264

for electroporation. Our optimized program is #14 (1200 volts, 20 seconds, 2 pulses). 265

Treated cells were placed in a gelatin-coated 24-well with pre-warmed ES medium and 266

returned to regular culture conditions. 267

PCR Genotyping 268

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PCR was performed on genomic DNA extracted from cell pellets or mouse tails to 269

determine the loss of the Y chromosomal genes Uba1y and Ssty1 by utilizing KAPA 270

Mouse Genotyping Kit (Roche, KK7302). Specific procedures were followed according 271

to the reagent instructions. PCR products were separated on 2-3% agarose gel in TBA 272

buffer, and inverted ethidium bromide stained images are shown. Cycling conditions: 273

95 °C for 3 min followed by 40 cycles of (95 °C for 15 s, 60°C for 15 s, and 72 °C for 274

120 s). Uba1/Uba1y primers: forward, TGGATGGTGTGGCCAATG; reverse, 275

CACCTGCACGTTGCCCTT (335 bp product for Y-linked Uba1y, 253 bp for X-linked 276

Uba1) (14). Ssty1 primers: forward, GCCACTATAGCTGGATTATGAG; reverse, 277

GTCTTCACATCAGAGGTTCTAC (1,444 bp product) (8). 278

qPCR of genomic DNA 279

To distinguish XX and XO female mice, X chromosome dosage was determined by 280

measuring the abundance of the X chromosome resident Bcor gene relative to Actb in 281

mouse tail genomic DNA using QPCR with PowerUp SYBR Green Master Mix 282

(ThermoFisher, cat# A25778). Relative abundance of Bcor is presented as 283

1000*2(Ct(Bcor)-Ct(Actb)), where Ct is cycle threshold. Among several X-linked genes tested 284

with this assay, only Bcor abundance in XX genome is consistently twice that in XY or 285

karyotype-confirmed XO genome. Bcor primers: forward, 286

TTTCCCACTCCATCCCCGACTAGTT; reverse, 287

TCCCAAATAAACACCAGAGGCGACA). Actb primers: forward, 288

GATATCGCTGCGCTGGTCGT; reverse, CCCACGATGGAGGGGAATACAG. 289

290

. 291

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10. Mahadevaiah, S. K., Odorisio, T., Elliott, D. J., Rattigan, A., Szot, M., Laval, S. H., 323

Washburn, L. L., McCarrey, J. R., Cattanach, B. M., Lovell-Badge, R., and 324

Burgoyne, P. S. (1998) Mouse homologues of the human AZF candidate gene 325

RBM are expressed in spermatogonia and spermatids, and map to a Y 326

chromosome deletion interval associated with a high incidence of sperm 327

abnormalities. Human molecular genetics 7, 715-727 328

11. Kleinstiver, B. P., Pattanayak, V., Prew, M. S., Tsai, S. Q., Nguyen, N. T., and 329

Joung, J. K. (2016) High-Fidelity CRISPR-Cas9 Nucleases with No Detectable 330

Genome-Wide Off-Target Effects. Mol Ther 24, S288-S288 331

12. Kim, S., Kim, D., Cho, S. W., Kim, J., and Kim, J. S. (2014) Highly efficient RNA-332

guided genome editing in human cells via delivery of purified Cas9 333

ribonucleoproteins. Genome Res 24, 1012-1019 334

13. Kim, T. K., and Eberwine, J. H. (2010) Mammalian cell transfection: the present 335

and the future. Anal Bioanal Chem 397, 3173-3178 336

14. Warr, N., Siggers, P., Bogani, D., Brixey, R., Pastorelli, L., Yates, L., Dean, C. H., 337

Wells, S., Satoh, W., Shimono, A., and Greenfield, A. (2009) Sfrp1 and Sfrp2 are 338

required for normal male sexual development in mice. Dev Biol 326, 273-284 339

340

341 342 343 344 345 346 347

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Supplementary Table 1. Developmental potential of Y-deletion subclones (ES-348 1) by tetraploid complementation 349

Subclones No. embryos transferred No. live pups

% (No. pups/No. embryos)

XO-1 35 7 20 XO-2 20 5 25 XO-3 20 0 0 XO-4 20 0 0 XO-5 20 0 0 XO-6 20 0 0

350 Supplementary Table 2. Developmental potential of single cell subclones (ES-1) 351 by tetraploid complementation 352

Subclones No. embryos transferred No. live pups

% (No. pups/No. embryos)

C1 57 0 0 C2 17 2 11.8 C3 53 7 13.2 C4 60 13 21.7 C5 43 0 0 C6 61 9 14.5 C7 20 0 0

353 Supplementary Table 3. XO clonal females produce normal male and female 354 offspring in cross with clonal males 355

Litter No. offspring

Gender

Female Male

XX XO XY

Litter-1 6 2 1 3

Litter-2 8 3 1 4

Litter-3 7 5 0 2

Litter-4 4 2 2 0

356

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Figure Legends: 357

Figure 1. Efficient elimination of the Y chromosome in mouse ES cells using 358

CRISPR/Cas9. A) Mouse Y chromosome and indicated relevant genes. B) Scheme 359

illustration of CRISPR-mediated Y chromosome elimination in mouse ES cells. C) Y 360

chromosome deletion rates as determined by Uba1y loss in targeted cells with varying 361

concentrations of co-transfection GFP plasmid. BS: blinded selection. D) Genomic PCR 362

analyses of Uba1 and Uba1y genes in GFP+ subclones with 150ng GFP plasmid (36.9 363

nM). Female (F) and male (M) control DNAs were included. E) Genomic PCR analyses 364

of Uba1, Uba1y and Ssty1 genes in GFP+ subclones with 50ng GFP plasmid (12.3 nM). 365

F) Genomic PCR analyses of Uba1 and Uba1y genes in GFP- subclones with 150ng of 366

GFP plasmid. G) Karyotype analysis shows absence of the Y chromosome in a targeted 367

ES cell (39, XO). 368

369

Figure 2. Viable and fertile monosomic XO female clonal mice generated from 39, 370

XO ES cells. A) Developmental potential of Y chromosome deletion ES cells by 371

tetraploid complementation. B) A litter of 5 XO all-ES pups from targeted subclone (ES-372

2). C) XO all-ES mice show a typical female genital tract at 2-week and 2-month, while 373

all-ES mice from the parental ES cells show male genital tract morphology. D) XO 374

female clonal mice produce normal offspring when mated with clonal male all-ES mice. 375

E) QPCR quantification of genomic abundance of the X chromosome Bcor gene in 376

indicated genomes of the offspring from litter-1. F) Normal male and female as well as 377

XO offspring are produced by XO female clonal mice with a smaller litter size. G) A 378

proposed approach to expedite the production of complex genetically-modified mouse 379

models. 380

Supplementary Figure 1. Efficient elimination of the Y chromosome in mouse ES 381

cells using CRISPR/Cas9. A) GFP+ cells from the targeted ES cells were picked at 48h 382

after transfection with the aid of a micromanipulator. B) A single cell colony from the 383

GFP+ cells emerged on the feeders after one week of culture in ES medium. C) GFP+ 384

cells with different GFP concentrations in the Cas9 cocktail. D) PCR genotyping of loss 385

of Uba1y gene in indicated GFP+ subclones from the 500ng group. Red arrows indicate 386

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the Uba1y gene deletion clones. Male (M) and female (F) control DNAs were included. 387

E) PCR genotyping of loss of Uba1y gene in indicated GFP+ subclones from the 250ng 388

group. Red arrows indicate the Uba1y gene deletion clones. Male (M) and female (F) 389

control DNAs were included. F) and G) Karyotyping of the subclones (ES-1) with loss of 390

Uba1y and Ssty1 genes confirms physical elimination of the Y chromosome. 391

392

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Y chromosome

A

F

G

B

C

D

Subclones (GFP 50ng)

Subclones (GFP 150ng)

Figure 1. Efficient to eliminate the Y chromosome on mouse ES cells using CRISPR/Cas9

E

Uba1y Uba1

Uba1yUba1

F M 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

F M 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Subclones (GFP 150ng)

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E

DC

A

2-week old F1 offspring

XO

B

F

FFigure 2. Viable and fertile XO female mice generated from 39, XO ES cells

2-month old 2-month old

XO XO XY

G

XO all-ES pups

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GFP Bright fieldA B

Supplementary Figure 1. Efficient to eliminate the Y chromosome on mouse ES cells using CRISPR/Cas9

GFP Bright field

100 ng

200 ng

300 ng

400 ng

500 ng

C

D

E

XO

F G

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

F M 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

F M 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

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