Although great progress has been made in the characterization of off-target effects of engineered nucleases, sensitive and unbiased genome-wide methods for the detection of off-target cleavage events and potential collateral damage are still lacking. Here we describe a linear amplification–mediated modification of a previously published high-throughput, genome-wide translocation sequencing (HTGTS) method that robustly detects DNA double-stranded breaks (DSBs) generated by engineered nucleases across the human genome based on their translocation to other endogenous or ectopic DSBs. HTGTS with different Cas9:sgRNA or TALEN-nucleases revealed off-target hotspots for given nucleases that ranged from a few or none to dozens or more, and extended the number of known off-targets for certain previously characterized nucleases by more than 10-fold. We also identified translocations between bona fide nuclease targets on homologous chromosomes, an undesired collateral effect that has not been described. Finally, HTGTS confirmed that the Cas9D10A paired nickase approach suppresses off-target cleavage genome-wide.

SUMMARY While chromosomal translocations are common pathogenetic events in cancer, mechanisms that promote them are poorly understood. To elucidate translocation mechanisms in mammalian cells, we developed high throughput, genome-wide translocation sequencing (HTGTS). We employed HTGTS to identify tens of thousands of independent translocation junctions involving fixed I-SceI meganuclease-generated DNA double strand breaks (DSBs) within the c-myc oncogene or IgH locus of B lymphocytes induced for Activation Induced-cytidine Deaminase (AID)-dependent IgH class-switching. DSBs translocated very widely across the genome, but were preferentially targeted to transcribed chromosomal regions and also to numerous AID-dependent and AID-independent hotspots, with the latter being comprised mainly of cryptic genomic I-SceI targets. Comparison of translocation junctions with genome-wide nuclear run-ons revealed a marked association between transcription start sites and translocation targeting. The majority of translocation junctions were formed via end-joining with short micro-homologies. We discuss implications of our findings for diverse fields including gene therapy and cancer genomics.