针对DNA长片段靶标的锌指筛选体系

A One-Step Screening System for Multi-Zinc Finger Proteins Targeting a Long-DNA Sequence

锌指蛋白能够特异性识别目标DNA序列,常被作为分子靶向因子用于定点核酸编辑以及定点转录调控等方面,具有十分广泛的应用前景.然而,目前常规采用的实验方法得到的锌指蛋白通常结合的目标DNA序列较短,结合能力不强,因而一直难以高效运用在核酸序列与调控蛋白在基因组上的原位互作等方面的研究中.为了解决这个问题,本研究构建了一个高通量筛选系统,利用N4噬菌体gp8毒蛋白和LacZ作为报告基因,以300 bp以上的DNA长片段为靶标,来筛选能够结合多位点的锌指蛋白组合,提高锌指蛋白应用的精确度以及效率.该系统针对小鼠Nrxn-1?启动子区域进行了锌指蛋白文库筛选,得到了具有序列选择特异性的混合锌指蛋白库,并对筛选结果进行了初步功能验证.研究表明,本系统具有简便快捷的特点,不仅大幅度缩短了筛选时间,而且减少了因靶标序列DNA片段较长而不得不反复设计多位点结合锌指蛋白造成的成本浪费;筛选得到的锌指蛋白库具有较高的长片段DNA靶标结合能力和一定的序列特异性,并且能够在真核细胞内特异地结合目标DNA序列.因此,本研究建立的新型锌指筛选系统不仅可以广泛应用于高通量筛选,而且在DNA-蛋白相互作用的研究中也具有重要意义.

Engineered zinc finger proteins have been widely used for gene editing and transcriptional regulation. Previously, various systems have been utilized in zinc finger screening, but only targeting on sequences no more than 18 bp. Here, we present a novel fast screen method, which is a one-hybrid system based on gp8, a phage-encoded inhibitor of DNA polymerase III. The whole screening process takes 3 days to identify a batch of zinc finger proteins, which could specifically and tightly target on a 300 bp sequence of mouse neurexinl-a promoter. The specificity and efficiency of zinc finger proteins were further validated by in vivo and in vitro assays. Our system provides a high-throughput, rapid and in vivo method for large-scale screening of zinc finger proteins, which is capable to study the protein-DNA interactions.