Abstract
In the presence of different physiological and environmental stresses, cells rapidly initiate stress responses to re-establish cellular homeostasis. Stress responses usually orchestrate both transcriptional and translational programs via distinct mechanisms. With the advance of transcriptomics and proteomics technologies, transcriptional and translational outputs to a particular stress condition have become easier to measure; however, these technologies lack the ability to reveal the upstream regulatory pathways. Unbiased genetic screens based on a transcriptional or translational reporter are powerful approaches to identify regulatory factors of a specific stress response. CRISPR/Cas-based technologies, together with next-generation sequencing, enable genome-scale pooled screens to systematically elucidate gene function in mammalian cells, with a significant reduction in the rate of off-target effects compared to the previously used RNAi technology. Here, we describe our fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS)-based CRISPR interference (CRISPRi) screening platform using a translational reporter to identify novel genetic factors of the mitochondrial stress response in mammalian cells. This protocol provides a general framework for scientists who wish to establish a reporter-based CRISPRi screening platform to address questions in their area of research.
Key words
- CRISPRi
- Genetic screens
- Mitochondrial stress response
- Transcriptional reporter
- Translational reporter
- FACS
- Mammalian cells
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Simmons SO, Fan CY, Ramabhadran R (2009) Cellular stress response pathway system as a sentinel ensemble in toxicological screening. Toxicol Sci 111:202–225. https://doi.org/10.1093/toxsci/kfp140
Kourtis N, Tavernarakis N (2011) Cellular stress response pathways and ageing: intricate molecular relationships. EMBO J 30:2520–2531. https://doi.org/10.1038/emboj.2011.162
Fulda S, Gorman AM, Hori O, Samali A (2010) Cellular stress responses: cell survival and cell death. Int J Cell Biol 2010:214074. https://doi.org/10.1155/2010/214074
Cox JS, Shamu CE, Walter P (1993) Transcriptional induction of genes encoding endoplasmic reticulum resident proteins requires a transmembrane protein kinase. Cell 73:1197–1206. https://doi.org/10.1016/0092-8674(93)90648-A
Morl K, Ma W, Gething MJ, Sambrook J (1993) A transmembrane protein with a cdc2+ CDC28-related kinase activity is required for signaling from the ER to the nucleus. Cell 74:743–756. https://doi.org/10.1016/0092-8674(93)90521-Q
Wang XZ, Harding HP, Zhang Y, Jolicoeur EM, Kuroda M, Ron D (1998) Cloning of mammalian Ire1 reveals diversity in the ER stress responses. EMBO J 17:5708–5717. https://doi.org/10.1093/emboj/17.19.5708
Tirasophon W, Welihinda AA, Kaufman RJ (1998) A stress response pathway from the endoplasmic reticulum to the nucleus requires a novel bifunctional protein kinase/endoribonuclease (Ire1p) in mammalian cells. Genes Dev 12:1812–1824. https://doi.org/10.1101/gad.12.12.1812
Korennykh A, Walter P (2012) Structural basis of the unfolded protein response. Annu Rev Cell Dev Biol 28:251–277. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-cellbio-101011-155826
Adams CJ, Kopp MC, Larburu N, Nowak PR, Ali MMU (2019) Structure and molecular mechanism of ER stress signaling by the unfolded protein response signal activator IRE1. Front Mol Biosci 6:1–12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmolb.2019.00011
Harding HP, Zhang Y, Ron D (1999) Protein translation and folding are coupled by an endoplasmic- reticulum-resident kinase. Nature 397:271–274. https://doi.org/10.1038/16729
Yoshida H, Haze K, Yanagi H, Yura T, Mori K (1998) Identification of the cis-acting endoplasmic reticulum stress response element responsible for transcriptional induction of mammalian glucose- regulated proteins: involvement of basic leucine zipper transcription factors. J Biol Chem 273:33741–33749. https://doi.org/10.1074/jbc.273.50.33741
Haynes CM, Petrova K, Benedetti C, Yang Y, Ron D (2007) ClpP mediates activation of a mitochondrial unfolded protein response in C. elegans. Dev Cell 13:467–480. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.devcel.2007.07.016
Haynes CM, Yang Y, Blais SP, Neubert TA, Ron D (2010) The matrix peptide exporter HAF-1 signals a mitochondrial UPR by activating the transcription factor ZC376.7 in C. elegans. Mol Cell 37:529–540. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molcel.2010.01.015
Nargund AM, Pellegrino MW, FioreseLister C, Baker MJ, Haynes CM (2012) Mitochondrial import efficiency of ATFS-1 regulates mitochondrial UPR activation. Science 337:587–591
Zhu D, Wu X, Zhou J, Li X, Huang X, Li J, Wu J, Bian Q, Wang Y, Tian Y (2020) NuRD mediates mitochondrial stress–induced longevity via chromatin remodeling in response to acetyl-CoA level. Sci Adv 6:1–13. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abb2529
Shao LW, Peng Q, Dong M, Gao K, Li Y, Li Y, Li CY, Liu Y (2020) Histone deacetylase HDA-1 modulates mitochondrial stress response and longevity. Nat Commun 11:1–12. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18501-w
Guo X, Aviles G, Liu Y, Tian R, Unger B, Lin Y-H, Wiita A, Xu K, Correia A, Kampmann M (2020) Mitochondrial dysfunction is signaled to the integrated stress response by OMA1, DELE1 and HRI. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1101/715896
Fessler E, Eckl EM, Schmitt S, Mancilla IA, Meyer-Bender MF, Hanf M, Philippou-Massier J, Krebs S, Zischka H, Jae LT (2020) A pathway coordinated by DELE1 relays mitochondrial stress to the cytosol. Nature 579:433–437. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2076-4
Bao XR, Ong SE, Goldberger O, Peng J, Sharma R, Thompson DA, Vafai SB, Cox AG, Marutani E, Ichinose F, Goessling W, Regev A, Carr SA, Clish CB, Mootha VK (2016) Mitochondrial dysfunction remodels one-carbon metabolism in human cells. Elife 5:1–24. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.10575
Quirós PM, Prado MA, Zamboni N, D’Amico D, Williams RW, Finley D, Gygi SP, Auwerx J (2017) Multi-omics analysis identifies ATF4 as a key regulator of the mitochondrial stress response in mammals. J Cell Biol 216:2027–2045. https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.201702058
Costa-Mattioli M, Walter P (2020) The integrated stress response: From mechanism to disease. Science 368(6489):eaat5314. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aat5314
Wek RC (2018) Role of eIF2α kinases in translational control and adaptation to cellular stress. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol 10:a032870. https://doi.org/10.1101/cshperspect.a032870
Wek RC, Jackson BM, Hinnebusch AG (1989) Juxtaposition of domains homologous to protein kinase and histidyl-tRNA synthetases in GCN2 protein suggests a mechanism for coupling GCN4 expression to amino acid availability. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 86:4579–4583. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.86.12.4579
Wek SA, Zhu S, Wek RC (1995) The histidyl-tRNA synthetase-related sequence in the eIF-2 alpha protein kinase GCN2 interacts with tRNA and is required for activation in response to starvation for different amino acids. Mol Cell Biol 15:4497–4506. https://doi.org/10.1128/mcb.15.8.4497
Meurs E, Chong K, Galabru J, Thomas NSB, Kerr IM, Williams BRG, Hovanessian AG (1990) Molecular cloning and characterization of the human double-stranded RNA-activated protein kinase induced by interferon. Cell 62:379–390. https://doi.org/10.1016/0092-8674(90)90374-N
Harding HP, Zhang Y, Bertolotti A, Zeng H, Ron D (2000) Perk is essential for translational regulation and cell survival during the unfolded protein response. Mol Cell 5:897–904. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1097-2765(00)80330-5
Chen JJ (2007) Regulation of protein synthesis by the heme-regulated eIF2α kinase: relevance to anemias. Blood 109:2693–2699. https://doi.org/10.1182/blood-2006-08-041830
Suragani RNVS, Zachariah RS, Velazquez JG, Liu S, Sun CW, Townes TM, Chen JJ (2012) Heme-regulated eIF2α kinase activated Atf4 signaling pathway in oxidative stress and erythropoiesis. Blood 119:5276–5284. https://doi.org/10.1182/blood-2011-10-388132
Hinnebusch AG, Lorsch JR (2012) The mechanism of eukaryotic translation initiation: new insights and challenges. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol 4:1–25. https://doi.org/10.1101/cshperspect.a011544
Vattem KM, Wek RC (2004) Reinitiation involving upstream ORFs regulates ATF4 mRNA translation in mammalian cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 101:11269–11274. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0400541101
Bolotin A, Quinquis B, Sorokin A, Dusko Ehrlich S (2005) Clustered regularly interspaced short palindrome repeats (CRISPRs) have spacers of extrachromosomal origin. Microbiology 151:2551–2561. https://doi.org/10.1099/mic.0.28048-0
Pourcel C, Salvignol G, Vergnaud G (2005) CRISPR elements in Yersinia pestis acquire new repeats by preferential uptake of bacteriophage DNA, and provide additional tools for evolutionary studies. Microbiology 151:653–663. https://doi.org/10.1099/mic.0.27437-0
Mojica FJM, Díez-Villaseñor C, García-Martínez J, Soria E (2005) Intervening sequences of regularly spaced prokaryotic repeats derive from foreign genetic elements. J Mol Evol 60:174–182. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00239-004-0046-3
Jinek M, Chylinski K, Fonfara I, Hauer M, Doudna JA, Charpentier E (2012) A programmable dual-RNA—guided DNA endonuclease in adaptive bacterial immunity. Science 337:816–822. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1225829
Cong L, Ran F, Cox D, Ling S, Barretto R, Habib N, Hsu P, Wu X, Jiang W, Marraffini L, Zhang F (2013) Multiplex genome engineering using CRISPR/Cas systems. Science 339:819–824
Gilbert LA, Larson MH, Morsut L, Liu Z, Brar GA, Torres SE, Stern-Ginossar N, Brandman O, Whitehead EH, Doudna JA, Lim WA, Weissman JS, Qi LS (2013) CRISPR-mediated modular RNA-guided regulation of transcription in eukaryotes. Cell 154:442. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2013.06.044
Zhou Y, Zhu S, Cai C, Yuan P, Li C, Huang Y, Wei W (2014) High-throughput screening of a CRISPR/Cas9 library for functional genomics in human cells. Nature 509:487–491. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13166
Koike-Yusa H, Li Y, Tan EP, Velasco-Herrera MDC, Yusa K (2014) Genome-wide recessive genetic screening in mammalian cells with a lentiviral CRISPR-guide RNA library. Nat Biotechnol 32:267–273. https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.2800
Shalem O, Sanjana NE, Hartenian E, Shi X, Scott DA, Mikkelsen TS, Heckl D, Ebert BL, Root DE, Doench JG, Zhang F (2014) Genome-scale CRISPR-Cas9 knockout screening in human cells. Science 343:84–87. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1247005
Wang T, Wei JJ, Sabatini DM, Lander ES (2014) Genetic screens in human cells using the CRISPR-Cas9 system. Science 343:80–84. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1246981
Gilbert LA, Horlbeck MA, Adamson B, Jacqueline E, Chen Y, Whitehead EH, Guimaraes C, Ploegh HL, Bassik MC, Qi LS, Kampmann M, Weissman JS (2015) Genome-scale CRISPR-mediated control of gene repression and activation. Cell 159:647–661. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2014.09.029.Genome-Scale
Konermann S, Brigham MD, Trevino AE, Joung J, Abudayyeh OO, Barcena C, Hsu PD, Habib N, Gootenberg JS, Nishimasu H, Nureki O, Zhang F (2015) Genome-scale transcriptional activation by an engineered CRISPR-Cas9 complex. Nature 517:583–588. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14136
Aguirre AJ, Meyers RM, Weir BA, Vazquez F, Zhang CZ, Ben-David U, Cook A, Ha G, Harrington WF, Doshi MB, Kost-Alimova M, Gill S, Xu H, Ali LD, Jiang G, Pantel S, Lee Y, Goodale A, Cherniack AD, Oh C, Kryukov G, Cowley GS, Garraway LA, Stegmaier K, Roberts CW, Golub TR, Meyerson M, Root DE, Tsherniak A, Hahn WC (2016) Genomic copy number dictates a gene-independent cell response to CRISPR/Cas9 targeting. Cancer Discov 6:914–929. https://doi.org/10.1158/2159-8290.CD-16-0154
Smith I, Greenside PG, Natoli T, Lahr DL, Wadden D, Tirosh I, Narayan R, Root DE, Golub TR, Subramanian A, Doench JG (2017) Evaluation of RNAi and CRISPR technologies by large-scale gene expression profiling in the connectivity map. PLoS Biol 15:1–23. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2003213
Horlbeck MA, Gilbert LA, Villalta JE, Adamson B, Pak RA, Chen Y, Fields AP, Park CY, Corn JE, Kampmann M, Weissman JS (2016) Compact and highly active next-generation libraries for CRISPR-mediated gene repression and activation. Elife 5:1–20. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.19760
Li W, Xu H, Xiao T, Cong L, Love MI, Zhang F, Irizarry RA, Liu JS, Brown M, Liu X (2014) MAGeCK enables robust identification of essential genes from genome-scale CRISPR/Cas9 knockout screens. Genome Biol 15:554. https://doi.org/10.1186/preaccept-1316450832143458
Acknowledgments
We thank many of the current (Lydia Lee, Sydney Sattler, Stephanie See, Nina Drager, Avi Samelson, Emmy Li, Kun Leng, Jaime Leong, Merissa Chen, Giovanni Aviles, Athony Abarientons, Brandan Rooney, Greg Mohl) and previous members (Diane Nathaniel, Connor Ludwig, Jason Hong, Poornima Ramkumar, John Chen, Ruilin Tian) of the Kampmann lab for optimizing and organizing many protocols included here. We thank Ruilin Tian and Avi Samelson for comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by the Larry L. Hillblom Foundation to X.G. and by the National Institutes of Health grants GM119139 to M.K.. M.K. is a Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature
About this protocol
Cite this protocol
Guo, X., Kampmann, M. (2022). CRISPR-Based Screening for Stress Response Factors in Mammalian Cells. In: Matějů, D., Chao, J.A. (eds) The Integrated Stress Response. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2428. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-1975-9_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-1975-9_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Humana, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-0716-1974-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-0716-1975-9
eBook Packages: Springer Protocols