In Vivo CRISPR/Cas9-Mediated Gene Ablation in Murine B Cells

Abstract

CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing is a powerful tool for assessing the functional role of candidate genes. In vitro CRISPR/Cas9 screens have been used to rapidly assess the role of thousands of genes in the differentiation and function of immune populations. However, the physiological relevance of a gene is often dependent on signals received in the tissue microenvironment, such as exposure to growth factors, chemokines, cytokines, and cell contact-dependent signals, which may not be recapitulated in an in vitro setting. Additionally, in vitro approaches are not sufficient to induce the differentiation of all cell populations limiting the cell types that can be screened. This has posed a major barrier to understanding the genes regulating the differentiation of germinal center B cells. Here, we describe an approach to perform an in vivo Crispr-Cas9 screen to specifically ablate genes in activated B cells. Using this approach, we have been able to reveal novel transcriptional regulators of germinal center B cell differentiation following viral infection.

Keywords: B cells; Bone marrow chimeras; CRISPR-Cas9 screen; Retroviral transduction; Single-guide RNAs.