Biology subjects

Beaudet, A. L.

Publications and source records attributed to Beaudet, A. L..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2022

Antisense oligonucleotide therapy rescues disturbed brain rhythms and sleep in juvenile and adult mouse models of Angelman syndrome

UBE3A encodes ubiquitin protein ligase E3A, and in neurons its expression from the paternal allele is repressed by the UBE3A antisense transcript (UBE3A-ATS). This leaves neurons susceptible to loss-of-function of maternal UBE3A. Indeed, Angelman syndrome, a severe neurodevelopmental disorder, is caused by maternal UBE3A deficiency. A promising therapeutic approach to treating Angelman syndrome is to reactivate the intact paternal UBE3A by suppressing UBE3A-ATS. Prior studies show that many neurological phenotypes of maternal Ube3a knockout mice can only be rescued by reinstating Ube3a expression in early development, indicating a restricted therapeutic window for Angelman syndrome. Here we report that reducing Ube3a-ATS by antisense oligonucleotides in juvenile or adult maternal Ube3a knockout mice rescues the abnormal electroencephalogram rhythms and sleep disturbance, two prominent clinical features of Angelman syndrome. Importantly, the degree of phenotypic improvement correlates with the increase of Ube3a protein levels. These results indicate that the therapeutic window of genetic therapies for Angelman syndrome is broader than previously thought, and electroencephalogram power spectrum and sleep architecture should be used to evaluate the clinical efficacy of therapies.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2019

A resource of targeted mutant mouse lines for 5,061 genes

The International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium reports the generation of new mouse mutant strains for over 5,000 genes from targeted embryonic stem cells on the C57BL/6N genetic background. This includes 2,850 null alleles for which no equivalent mutant mouse line exists, 2,987 novel conditional-ready alleles, and 4,433 novel reporter alleles. This nearly triples the number of genes with reporter alleles and almost doubles the number of conditional alleles available to the scientific community. When combined with more than 30 years of community effort, the total mutant allele mouse resource covers more than half of the genome. The extensively validated collection is archived and distributed through public repositories, facilitating availability to the worldwide biomedical research community, and expanding our understanding of gene function and human disease.

genetics↗

bioRxiv2019

Human and mouse essentiality screens as a resource for disease gene discovery

Although genomic sequencing has been transformative in the study of rare genetic diseases, identifying causal variants remains a considerable challenge that can be addressed in part by new gene-specific knowledge. Here, we integrate measures of how essential a gene is to supporting life, as inferred from the comprehensive viability and phenotyping screens performed on knockout mice by the International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium and from human cell line essentiality screens. We propose a novel, cross-species gene classification across the Full Spectrum of Intolerance to Loss-of-function (FUSIL) and demonstrate that genes in five mutually exclusive FUSIL categories have differing characteristics in the biological processes they regulate, tissue expression levels and human mutation rates. Most notably, Mendelian disease genes, particularly those associated with developmental disorders, are highly overrepresented in the developmental lethal category, representing genes not essential for cell survival but required for organism development. Exploiting this finding, we have screened developmental disorder cases from three independent disease sequencing consortia and identified potentially pathogenic, de novo variants shared in different patients for several developmental lethal genes that have not previously been associated with rare disease. We therefore propose FUSIL as an efficient resource for disease gene discovery.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2017

Employing single-stranded DNA donors for the high-throughput production of conditional knockout alleles in mice

The International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium is generating null allele mice for every protein-coding gene in the genome and characterizing these mice to identify gene-phenotype associations. To test the feasibility of using CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing to generate conditional knockout mice for this large-scale resource, we employed Cas9-mediated homology driven repair (HDR) with short and long single-stranded oligodeoxynucleotides (ssODNs and lssODNs). Using pairs of guides and ssODNs donating loxP sites, we obtained putative conditional allele founder mice, harboring both loxP sites, for 23 of 30 genes targeted. LoxP sites integrated in cis in at least one F0 for 18 of 23 targeted genes. However, loxP sites were mutagenized in 4 of 18 in cis lines. HDR efficiency correlated with Cas9 cutting efficiency but was not influenced by ssODN homology arm symmetry. By contrast, using pairs of guides and a single lssODN to introduce a loxP-flanked exon, conditional allele founders were generated for all 4 genes targeted. Our studies demonstrate that Cas9-mediated HDR with pairs of ssODNs can generate conditional null alleles at many loci, but reveal inefficiencies when applied at scale. In contrast, lssODNs are amenable to high-throughput production of conditional alleles when they can be employed.

genetics↗