Journal: bioRxiv
Article Title: Systematic comparison of dCas9-based DNA methylation epimodifiers over time indicates efficient on-target and widespread off-target effects
doi: 10.1101/2025.03.15.641804
Figure Lengend Snippet: Early transcriptomic changes induced by the dCas9-epimodifiers. a . Hierarchical clustering and principal component analysis of RNA-sequencing data 3 days post-transfection with the dCas9-epimodifiers (3A, 3A3L, 3A3A, 3A-KRAB, mut3A, M.SssI, SunTag) or CRISPRoff (co-transfected with a gRNA-encoding plasmid). b . Correlation between transcriptional changes driven by BACH2 -targeting (g8) and non-targeting control (NTC) gRNAs in comparison to the control deactivated DNMT3A (d3A) with the blue and pink colors reflecting downregulated and upregulated transcripts, respectively, between g8 and NTC. c . Total number of differentially expressed genes (DEGs, upper graph) and proportion in percentage (middle graph) of upregulated (pink color) and downregulated (blue color) DEGs between each dCas9-epimodifier and control d3A with |log 2 FC| > 1. The number of DEGs shared with at least one other epimodifier is detailed in the lower pairwise sharedness plot (the darker the color the highest number of genes being shared). d . Clustering of gene ontology terms, using GeneSetCluster tool, derived from the transcriptome of each epimodifier expressing either g8 or NTC compared to the control d3A, the Jaccard score depicted in grey gradient represents the degree of gene sharedness between sets (the darker the colors, the higher the number of genes being shared). The normalized enrichment scores (NES) illustrating upregulation and downregulation are indicated in orange and green colors, respectively for each cluster. e . STRING network of the core interconnected genes shared between epimodifiers identified using Density-Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise algorithm. Pie charts summarize the dCas9-epimodifiers involved in the gene overlap for each sub-network, distinguishing the fraction shared between CRISPRoff and dCas9-mut3A from other shared genes. f . BACH2 promoter differential methylation region (DMR, mean of CpGs β values) and gene expression (in counts per million, CPM, upper graph) and correlation between differences at BACH2 promoter methylation (Δβ g8-NTC ) and gene expression (log 2 g8/NTC) between g8 and NTC gRNAs (lower graph).
Article Snippet: M3-dCAS9-DNMT3A-DNMT3A (dCas9-3A-3A, Addgene #218776) plasmid made by the amplification of the human DNMT3A catalytic domain from the pdCas9-DNMT3A-EGFP (Addgene #71666) plasmid using the primers containing the FseI restriction sites.
Techniques: RNA Sequencing, Transfection, Plasmid Preparation, Control, Comparison, Derivative Assay, Expressing, Methylation, Gene Expression