Targeted gene correction minimally impacts whole-genome mutational load in human-disease-specific induced pluripotent stem cell clones.

Journal: 
Cell Stem Cell
Publication Year: 
2014
Authors: 
Keiichiro Suzuki
Chang Yu
Jing Qu
Mo Li
Xiaotian Yao
Tingting Yuan
April Goebl
Senwei Tang
Ruotong Ren
Emi Aizawa
Fan Zhang
Xiuling Xu
Rupa Devi Soligalla
Feng Chen
Jessica Kim
Na Young Kim
Hsin-Kai Liao
Chris Benner
Concepcion Rodriguez Esteban
Yabin Jin
Guang-Hui Liu
Yingrui Li
Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte
PubMed link: 
24996168
Public Summary: 
The utility of genome editing technologies for disease modeling and developing cellular therapies has been extensively documented, but the impact of these technologies on mutational load at the whole-genome level remains unclear. We performed whole-genome sequencing to evaluate the mutational load at single-base resolution in individual gene-corrected human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) clones in three different disease models. In single-cell clones, gene correction by helper-dependent adenoviral vector (HDAdV) or Transcription Activator-Like Effector Nuclease (TALEN) exhibited few off-target effects and a low level of sequence variation, comparable to that accumulated in routine hiPSC culture. The sequence variants were randomly distributed and unique to individual clones. We also combined both technologies and developed a TALEN-HDAdV hybrid vector, which significantly increased gene-correction efficiency in hiPSCs. Therefore, with careful monitoring via whole-genome sequencing it is possible to apply genome editing to human pluripotent cells with minimal impact on genomic mutational load.
Scientific Abstract: 
The utility of genome editing technologies for disease modeling and developing cellular therapies has been extensively documented, but the impact of these technologies on mutational load at the whole-genome level remains unclear. We performed whole-genome sequencing to evaluate the mutational load at single-base resolution in individual gene-corrected human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) clones in three different disease models. In single-cell clones, gene correction by helper-dependent adenoviral vector (HDAdV) or Transcription Activator-Like Effector Nuclease (TALEN) exhibited few off-target effects and a low level of sequence variation, comparable to that accumulated in routine hiPSC culture. The sequence variants were randomly distributed and unique to individual clones. We also combined both technologies and developed a TALEN-HDAdV hybrid vector, which significantly increased gene-correction efficiency in hiPSCs. Therefore, with careful monitoring via whole-genome sequencing it is possible to apply genome editing to human pluripotent cells with minimal impact on genomic mutational load.