Abstract
Transgenesis in model organisms is an essential tool for determining the function of protein-coding genes and non-coding regulatory regions. In Caenorhabditis elegans, injected DNA can be propagated as multicopy extra-chromosomal arrays, but transgenes in arrays are frequently mosaic, over-expressed in some tissues, and silenced in the germline. Here, we describe methods to insert single-copy transgenes into specific genomic locations (MosSCI) or random locations (miniMos) using Mos1 transposons. Single-copy insertions allow expression at endogenous levels, expression in the germline, and identification of active and repressed regions of the genome.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Mello CC, Kramer JM, Stinchcomb D, Ambros V (1991) Efficient gene transfer in C.elegans: extrachromosomal maintenance and integration of transforming sequences. EMBO J 10:3959–3970
Husson SJ, Gottschalk A, Leifer AM (2013) Optogenetic manipulation of neural activity in C. elegans: from synapse to circuits and behaviour. Biol Cell 105:235–250. https://doi.org/10.1111/boc.201200069
Kelly WG, Xu S, Montgomery MK, Fire A (1997) Distinct requirements for somatic and germline expression of a generally expressed Caernorhabditis elegans gene. Genetics 146:227–238
Grishok A, Sinskey JL, Sharp PA (2005) Transcriptional silencing of a transgene by RNAi in the soma of C. elegans. Genes Dev 19:683–696. https://doi.org/10.1101/gad.1247705
Tabara H, Sarkissian M, Kelly WG, Fleenor J, Grishok A, Timmons L, Fire A, Mello CC (1999) The rde-1 gene, RNA interference, and transposon silencing in C. elegans. Cell 99:123–132. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0092-8674(00)81644-X
Vastenhouw NL, Fischer SEJ, Robert VJP, Thijssen KL, Fraser AG, Kamath RS, Ahringer J, Plasterk RHA (2003) A genome-wide screen identifies 27 genes involved in transposon silencing in C. elegans. Curr Biol 13:1311–1316. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0960-9822(03)00539-6
Praitis V, Casey E, Collar D, Austin J (2001) Creation of low-copy integrated transgenic lines in Caenorhabditis elegans. Genetics 157:1217–1226
Kage-Nakadai E, Kobuna H, Funatsu O, Otori M, Gengyo-Ando K, Yoshina S, Hori S, Mitani S (2012) Single/low-copy integration of transgenes in Caenorhabditis elegans using an ultraviolet trimethylpsoralen method. BMC Biotechnol 12:1. https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6750-12-1
Paix A, Folkmann A, Rasoloson D, Seydoux G (2015) High efficiency, homology-directed genome editing in Caenorhabditis elegans using CRISPR-Cas9 ribonucleoprotein complexes. Genetics 201:47–54. https://doi.org/10.1534/genetics.115.179382
Dickinson DJ, Ward JD, Reiner DJ, Goldstein B (2013) Engineering the Caenorhabditis elegans genome using Cas9-triggered homologous recombination. Nat Methods 10:1028–1034. https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.2641
Dickinson DJ, Pani AM, Heppert JK, Higgins CD, Goldstein B (2015) Streamlined genome engineering with a self-excising drug selection cassette. Genetics 200:1035–1049. https://doi.org/10.1534/genetics.115.178335
Schwartz ML, Jorgensen EM (2016) SapTrap, a toolkit for high-throughput CRISPR/Cas9 gene modification in Caenorhabditis elegans. Genetics 202:1277–1288. https://doi.org/10.1534/genetics.115.184275
Frøkjær-Jensen C, Wayne Davis M, Hopkins CE, Newman BJ, Thummel JM, Olesen S-P, Grunnet M, Jorgensen EM (2008) Single-copy insertion of transgenes in Caenorhabditis elegans. Nat Genet 40:1375–1383. https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.248
Frøkjær-Jensen C, Davis MW, Sarov M, Taylor J, Flibotte S, LaBella M, Pozniakovsky A, Moerman DG, Jorgensen EM (2014) Random and targeted transgene insertion in Caenorhabditis elegans using a modified Mos1 transposon. Nat Methods 11:529–534. https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.2889
Bessereau J-L, Wright A, Williams DC, Schuske K, Davis MW, Jorgensen EM (2001) Mobilization of a drosophila transposon in the Caenorhabditis elegans germ line. Nature 413:70–74. https://doi.org/10.1038/35092567
Robert V, Bessereau J-L (2007) Targeted engineering of the Caenorhabditis elegans genome following Mos1-triggered chromosomal breaks. EMBO J 26:170–183. https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.emboj.7601463
Vallin E, Gallagher J, Granger L, Martin E, Belougne J, Maurizio J, Duverger Y, Scaglione S, Borrel C, Cortier E, Abouzid K, Carre-Pierrat M, Gieseler K, Ségalat L, Kuwabara PE, Ewbank JJ (2012) A genome-wide collection of Mos1 transposon insertion mutants for the C. elegans research community. PLoS One 7:e30482. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0030482
Frøkjær-Jensen C, Davis MW, Ailion M, Jorgensen EM (2012) Improved Mos1-mediated transgenesis in C. elegans. Nat Methods 9:117–118. https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.1865
El Mouridi S, Peng Y, Frøkjær-Jensen C (2020) Characterizing a strong pan-muscular promoter (Pmlc-1) as a fluorescent co-injection marker to select for single-copy insertions. MicroPubl Biol 2020. https://doi.org/10.17912/micropub.biology.000302
Fan X, De Henau S, Feinstein J, Miller SI, Han B, Frøkjær-Jensen C, Griffin EE (2020) SapTrap assembly of Caenorhabditis elegans MosSCI transgene vectors. G3 (Bethesda) 10:635–644. https://doi.org/10.1534/g3.119.400822
Aram R, MacGillivray K, Li C, Saltzman A (2019) Tools for Mos1-mediated single copy insertion (mosSCI) with excisable unc-119(+) or NeoR (G418) selection cassettes. MicroPubl Biol 2019. https://doi.org/10.17912/micropub.biology.000146
Boulin T, Bessereau J-L (2007) Mos1-mediated insertional mutagenesis in Caenorhabditis elegans. Nat Protoc 2:1276–1287. https://doi.org/10.1038/nprot.2007.192
Frøkjær-Jensen C, Jain N, Hansen L, Davis MW, Li Y, Zhao D, Rebora K, Millet JRM, Liu X, Kim SK, Dupuy D, Jorgensen EM, Fire AZ (2016) An abundant class of non-coding DNA can prevent stochastic gene silencing in the C. elegans germline. Cell 166:343–357. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2016.05.072
Aljohani MD, El Mouridi S, Priyadarshini M, Vargas-Velazquez AM, Frøkjær-Jensen C (2020) Engineering rules that minimize germline silencing of transgenes in simple extrachromosomal arrays in C. elegans. Nat Commun 11:6300. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-19898-0
Pokala N, Liu Q, Gordus A, Bargmann CI (2014) Inducible and titratable silencing of Caenorhabditis elegans neurons in vivo with histamine-gated chloride channels. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 111:2770–2775. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1400615111
El Mouridi S, AlHarbi S, Frøkjær-Jensen C (2021) A histamine-gated channel is an efficient negative selection marker for C. elegans transgenesis. MicroPubl Biol 2021. https://doi.org/10.17912/micropub.biology.000349
Shirayama M, Seth M, Lee H-C, Gu W, Ishidate T, Conte D Jr, Mello CC (2012) piRNAs initiate an epigenetic memory of nonself RNA in the C. elegans germline. Cell 150:65–77. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2012.06.015
Acknowledgments
Research in the laboratory of CFJ is supported by KAUST intramural funding. Strains for transgene insertion are provided by the CGC, which is funded by NIH Office of Research Infrastructure Programs (P40 OD010440), and by the NemaGENETAG project. We thank the Bargmann lab (Rockefeller University) for plasmids used for histamine-based selection.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
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
El Mouridi, S., Frøkjær-Jensen, C. (2022). Targeted and Random Transposon-Assisted Single-Copy Transgene Insertion in C. elegans. In: Haspel, G., Hart, A.C. (eds) C. elegans. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2468. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-2181-3_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-2181-3_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Humana, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-0716-2180-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-0716-2181-3
eBook Packages: Springer Protocols