Abstract
Genome editing is an important tool for modifying genomic DNA through introducing DNA insertion or deletion at specific locations of a genome. Recently CRISPR/Cas9 has been widely employed to improve the efficiency of genome editing. The Cas9 nuclease creates site-specific double strand breaks (DSBs) at targeted loci in the genome. Subsequently, the DSBs are repaired by two pathways: Homologous Recombination (HR) and Non-Homologous End-Joining (NHEJ). HR has been considered as “error-free” because it repairs DSBs by copying DNA sequences from a homologous DNA template, while NHEJ is “error-prone” as there are base deletions or insertions at the breakage site. Recently, RB1, a gene that is commonly mutated in retinoblastoma, has been reported to affect the repair efficiencies of HR and NHEJ. This review focuses on the roles of RB1 in repairing DNA DSBs, which have impacts on the precision and consequences of the genome editing, both at the targeted loci and the overall genome.
CRISPR/CAS9 and DNA double strand breaks
Gene editing technology is an important tool for editing genomic DNA through introducing DNA insertion or deletion at specific locations of the genome. Recently, CRISPR/Cas9 has been a popular technology for genome editing, which has potentials to be developed as a novel treatment for genetic diseases in human. Guided by RNA, which comprises a direct sequence of 20 nucleotides, the Cas9 endonuclease creates site-specific double strand breaks (DSBs) at targeted loci in the genome. Subsequently, it can knock out the targeted gene. Before the invention of CRISPR/Cas9 system, modifying the DNA sequence can be achieved by other methods, including site-directed mutagenesis and recombination based methods (Capecchi, ; Ling and Robinson, ). Site-directed mutagenesis is most useful in organisms such as bacteria and yeast, with relatively simple laboratory methods for the introduction and selection of a desired mutation (Storici et al., ). One established protocol utilizes polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-mediated methods and oligonucleotides containing the desired mutation to amplify the template DNA. The newly synthesized DNA would then carry the desired mutation. The recombination based method employs cell transformation with exogenous DNA carrying DNA sequence homologous to the endogenous DNA. If DSBs are created in the endogenous DNA, the homologous recombination machinery would repair the DSBs by copying the exogenous DNA. By using this method, insertion or deletion of the target DNA sequence could be introduced into the desired loci. This recombination based method is commonly used in mammalian cells (Capecchi, ). Importantly, this recombination based method relies on the occurrence of DSBs at the desired locus. DSBs could be generated endogenously or exogenously (Hartlerode and Scully, ). Endogenous DSBs could arise from DNA replication fork encountering a broken template or from specific physiological activities such as meiosis or V(D)J recombination at the immunoglobulin heavy chain locus. Exogenously, DSBs could be generated by exposing cells to DNA damaging agents such as ionizing radiation, UV light or topoisomerase poisons. As a result, the occurrence rate of DSBs at the desired locus is varying. At some loci, the chance of having a DSB could be extremely low, resulting in a very low genome-editing efficiency at these loci. In addition, the appearance of DSBs in other undesired loci may lead to erroneous recombination and “off-target” editing at those loci. Therefore, the CRISPR/Cas9 technology could solve both the low DSB generation and the “off-target” issues by inducing DSBs at specific loci.
DSBs are thought to be the most cytotoxic DNA damage compared to other types of DNA damages, such as DNA mismatches and base damages, because of the discontinuation of both DNA strands. It has been reported that the DSBs induced by Cas9 are toxic to human pluripotent stem cells, which would limit the efficiency of genome editing (Ihry et al., ). This toxic response is dependent on p53 (Haapaniemi et al., ). These results suggest that p53 inhibition may improve the efficiency of genome editing. And importantly, the p53 status should be closely monitored in cells that have been treated with CRISPR–Cas9.
There are two main pathways to repair DSBs: Homologous Recombination (HR) and Non-Homologous End-Joining (NHEJ). HR has been considered as “error-free” because it repairs DSBs by copying DNA sequences from a homologous DNA template, while NHEJ is “error-prone” because it can lead to small deletions or insertions at the breakage site. The choice of repairing DSBs through HR or NHEJ would affect the genetic outcome of the CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing. For example, if no exogenous DNA is provided, repairing DSBs by NHEJ is desirable to generate deletions or insertions at the specific loci. And usually it is difficult to control the length of these NHEJ mediated deletions and insertions. If HR is used to repair DSBs when there is no exogenous template, the DNA breakage would be repaired by copying DNA sequence from the sister chromatid or the homologous allele, which have identical or highly similar DNA sequence. Therefore the outcome would be no or limited mutation at the designated loci. On the other hand, if an exogenous template carrying a designated mutation is provided, HR would be desirable to create precise DNA sequence deletion, insertion or replacement. Therefore, it is important to understand how cells choose between HR and NHEJ to repair DSBs generated by CRISPR/Cas9.
Mechanisms of DNA DSB repair
Faithful repair of damaged DNA is important for genome integrity. Many types of DNA lesions lead to DNA DSB formation with loss of continuity of genome (Aparicio et al., ). Unfaithful repair of DSBs can lead to serious consequences, including cancer promoting initiation, disease progression and therapy resistance. There are two main pathways to repair DSBs: NHEJ and Homologous Recombination (HR). Theoretically NHEJ could take place throughout the entire cell cycle although some studies suggested that NHEJ has dominant roles in the G0 and G1 stages (Karanam et al., ; Chiruvella et al., ). In this DNA repair mechanism (Figure 1), many factors such as XRCC5 (also known as Ku80), XRCC6 (also known as Ku70), DNA-PKcs, XRCC4-ligase IV, and MRE11-RAD50-NBS1 (MRN) complex are required for direct ligation of DNA ends (Lieber et al., ). It is worth to be noted that some DNA sequences might be degraded at the DNA breakage sites. Therefore, this repair mechanism could potentially generate some “errors” in repairing DSBs. Nevertheless, NHEJ is a relatively fast and simple mechanism, compared to HR, to repair DSBs (Difilippantonio et al., ). In addition, NHEJ is also critical for the generation of diversity at the immunoglobulin gene (Critchlow and Jackson, ). Apart from NHEJ, HR is the other DSB repair pathway (Figure 2). HR takes place predominately in the S and G2 phases of the cell cycle (Kato et al., ). In these two cell cycle stages, DNA is being replicated or has been replicated. Therefore the sister chromatids, which carry identical DNA sequences, are available to serve as templates for HR. As an error-free pathway of DSB repair, a significant difference from NHEJ is the directional (5′-3′) degradation of DSBs to generate a 3′ single strand DNA (ssDNA) tail. Recent studies have identified multiple proteins in this DNA resection reaction, including BLM, DNA2, EXO1, CtIP, and MRN complex (comprised of MRE11, RAD50, and NBS1; Nimonkar et al., ). Replication protein A (RPA) then binds to the ssDNA tail, which is subsequently replaced by another protein RAD51. During this step, other proteins such as BRCA2 and RAD54 would help RAD51 to bind to ssDNA to form the RAD51-ssDNA nucleofilament (Esashi et al., ; Ayoub et al., ). The nucleofilament could then search for the homologous DNA sequences, invade into the homologous DNA sequences and synthesize DNA by using the homologous DNA sequences as templates. After the DNA synthesis, the DNA ends are then ligated to the other side of the DSBs.
Figure 1
Figure 2
It has been reported that NHEJ and HR are in competition for the repairing of DSBs: when NHEJ is upregulated, HR is then inhibited and vice versa. And the DNA resection step has been proposed to be one of the major determinants to regulate the NHEJ and HR efficiencies (Deriano and Roth,
RB and the multiple functions in genome stability
Biallelic inactivation of RB1 gene is a disease causing mutation of retinoblastoma (Rushlow et al.,
In particular, in human cells, RB inactivation led to accumulation of DSBs (Pickering and Kowalik,
Figure 3

Potential roles of the retinoblastoma protein in regulating CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing. The gRNA (red) could guide the Cas9 endonuclease (blue) to create a site-specific double strand break (DSB). There are two main pathways to repair the DSB: Homologous Recombination (HR) and Non-Homologous End-Joining (NHEJ). Recently RB has been reported to regulate both HR and NHEJ by forming protein complexes with BRG1 or XRCC5 and XRCC6, respectively. The choice of repairing DSBs through HR or NHEJ would affect the genetic outcome of the CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing.
In addition to HR, RB was also reported to play important roles in NHEJ (Cook et al.,
CRISPR/Cas9 technology is a powerful technology to generate locus specific DSBs. Despite, it is worth noted that there are still potential off-target events generated by CRISPR/Cas9. On the other hand, improving the genome editing efficiency may comprise the accuracy. The balance of genome editing efficiency and accuracy could be greatly affected by regulating the efficiencies of HR and NHEJ. Recent studies have identified functional roles of RB in both HR and NHEJ, implying RB could be a key determinant of the CRISPR/Cas9 mediated genome editing. The choice of repairing DSBs through HR or NHEJ would affect the genetic outcome of the CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing. As HR and NHEJ have been reported to compete with each other for the repairing of DSBs, it is important to investigate the relationships between RB, HR, and NHEJ (Deriano and Roth,
Statements
Author contributions
All authors listed have made a substantial, direct and intellectual contribution to the work, and approved it for publication.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by The Chinese University of Hong Kong Direct Grant 4054360.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
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Summary
Keywords
retinoblastoma, genome editing, CRISPR/Cas9, homologous recombination, Non-Homologous End-Joining
Citation
Jiang Y and Chu WK (2018) Potential Roles of the Retinoblastoma Protein in Regulating Genome Editing. Front. Cell Dev. Biol. 6:81. doi: 10.3389/fcell.2018.00081
Received
02 March 2018
Accepted
13 July 2018
Published
31 July 2018
Volume
6 - 2018
Edited by
Ross F. Collery, Medical College of Wisconsin, United States
Reviewed by
Raman Chandrasekar, Kansas State University, United States; Chunqiao Liu, Sun Yat-sen University, China
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© 2018 Jiang and Chu.
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*Correspondence: Wai Kit Chu waikit@cuhk.edu.hk
This article was submitted to Molecular Medicine, a section of the journal Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology
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