Comprehensive identification of factors that can specify neuronal fate could provide valuable insights into lineage specification and reprogramming, but systematic interrogation of transcription factors, and their interactions with each other, has proven technically challenging. We developed a CRISPR activation (CRISPRa) approach to systematically identify regulators of neuronal-fate specification. We activated expression of all endogenous transcription factors and other regulators via a pooled CRISPRa screen in embryonic stem cells, revealing genes including epigenetic regulators such as Ezh2 that can induce neuronal fate. Systematic CRISPR-based activation of factor pairs allowed us to generate a genetic interaction map for neuronal differentiation, with confirmation of top individual and combinatorial hits as bona fide inducers of neuronal fate. Several factor pairs could directly reprogram fibroblasts into neurons, which shared similar transcriptional programs with endogenous neurons. This study provides an unbiased discovery approach for systematic identification of genes that drive cell-fate acquisition.
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| http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.stem.2018.09.003 | DOI Listing |
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The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
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State Key Laboratory of Common Mechanism Research for Major Diseases, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Medical Primate Research Center, Neuroscience Center, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, School of Basic Medicine Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, 100005, China.
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Sci Rep
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Department of Biology, The University of Mississippi, University, MS, 38677, USA.
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Department of Ophthalmology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA.
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Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics, Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA.
encodes a UDP-galactose transporter essential for glycosylation of proteins and galactosylation of lipids and glycosaminoglycans. Germline genetic variants have been identified in congenital disorders of glycosylation and somatic variants have been linked to intractable epilepsy associated with malformations of cortical development. However, the functional consequences of these pathogenic variants on brain development and network integrity remain elusive.
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