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Journal Article Epublish

PubMed: 39169430 DOI: 10.1186/s13071-024-06431-1

Optimization of a DiCre recombinase system with reduced leakage for conditional genome editing of Cryptosporidium.

Parasit Vectors 17(1):352

Authors: Yue Huang, Jinli Li, Shifeng Pei, Heng You, Huimin Liu, Yaqiong Guo, Rui Xu, Na Li, Yaoyu Feng, Lihua Xiao

Affiliations

  • State Key Laboratory for Animal Disease Control and Prevention, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, China.
  • State Key Laboratory for Animal Disease Control and Prevention, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, China. Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Diseases, College of Veterinary Medicine, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, China.
  • State Key Laboratory for Animal Disease Control and Prevention, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, China. Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Diseases, College of Veterinary Medicine, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, China.

Abstract

BACKGROUND

The dimerizable Cre recombinase system (DiCre) exhibits increased leaky activity in Cryptosporidium, leading to unintended gene editing in the absence of induction. Therefore, optimization of the current DiCre technique is necessary for functional studies of essential Cryptosporidium genes.

METHODS

Based on the results of transcriptomic analysis of Cryptosporidium parvum stages, seven promoters with different transcriptional capabilities were screened to drive the expression of Cre fragments (FKBP-Cre59 and FRB-Cre60). Transient transfection was performed to assess the effect of promoter strength on leakage activity. In vitro and in vivo experiments were performed to evaluate the leaky activity and cleavage efficiency of the optimized DiCre system by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), nanoluciferase, and fluorescence analyses.

RESULTS

The use of promoters with lower transcriptional activity, such as pcgd6_4110 and pcgd3_260, as opposed to strong promoters such as pActin, pα-Tubulin, and pEnolase, reduced the leakage rate of the system from 35-75% to nearly undetectable levels, as verified by transient transfection. Subsequent in vitro and in vivo experiments using stable lines further demonstrated that the optimized DiCre system had no detectable leaky activity. The system achieved 71% cleavage efficiency in vitro. In mice, a single dose of the inducer resulted in a 10% conditional gene knockout and fluorescent protein expression in oocysts. These fluorescently tagged transgenic oocysts could be enriched by flow sorting for further infection studies.

CONCLUSIONS

A DiCre conditional gene knockout system for Cryptosporidium with good cleavage efficiency and reduced leaky activity has been successfully established.

MeSH

Oocysts, Genes, Promoter Regions, Genetic, Polymerase Chain Reaction, Genome, Gene Editing, Gene Knockout Techniques, Recombinases, Parasites, Transfection

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