No abstract

Exome sequencing has become a powerful and effective strategy for discovery of genes underlying Mendelian disorders1. However, use of exome sequencing to identify variants associated with complex traits has been more challenging, partly because the samples sizes needed for adequate power may be very large2. One strategy to increase efficiency is to sequence individuals who are at both ends of a phenotype distribution (i.e., extreme phenotypes). Because the frequency of alleles that contribute to the trait are enriched in one or both extremes of phenotype, a modest sample size can potentially identify novel candidate genes/alleles3. As part of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Exome Sequencing Project (ESP), we used an extreme phenotype design to discover that variants in DCTN4, encoding a dynactin protein, are associated with time to first Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) airway infection, chronic P. aeruginosa infection and mucoid P. aeruginosa among individuals with cystic fibrosis (MIM219700).

High-throughput sequencing has enabled genetic screens that can rapidly identify mutations that occur during experimental evolution. The presence of a mutation in an evolved lineage does not, however, constitute proof that the mutation is adaptive, given the well-known and widespread phenomenon of genetic hitchhiking, in which a non-adaptive or even detrimental mutation can co-occur in a genome with a beneficial mutation and the combined genotype is carried to high frequency by selection. We approximated the spectrum of possible beneficial mutations in Saccharomyces cerevisiae using sets of single-gene deletions and amplifications of almost all the genes in the S. cerevisiae genome. We determined the fitness effects of each mutation in three different nutrient-limited conditions using pooled competitions followed by barcode sequencing. Although most of the mutations were neutral or deleterious, ~500 of them increased fitness. We then compared those results to the mutations that actually occurred during experimental evolution in the same three nutrient-limited conditions. On average, ~35% of the mutations that occurred during experimental evolution were predicted by the systematic screen to be beneficial. We found that the distribution of fitness effects depended on the selective conditions. In the phosphate-limited and glucose-limited conditions, a large number of beneficial mutations of nearly equivalent, small effects drove the fitness increases. In the sulfate-limited condition, one type of mutation, the amplification of the high-affinity sulfate transporter, dominated. In the absence of that mutation, evolution in the sulfate-limited condition involved mutations in other genes that were not observed previously—but were predicted by the systematic screen. Thus, gross functional screens have the potential to predict and identify adaptive mutations that occur during experimental evolution.

The recent dramatic appearance of variants of concern of SARS-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) highlights the need for innovative approaches that simultaneously suppress viral replication and circumvent viral escape from host immunity and antiviral therapeutics. Here, we employ genome-wide computational prediction and single-nucleotide resolution screening to reprogram CRISPR-Cas13b against SARS-CoV-2 genomic and subgenomic RNAs. Reprogrammed Cas13b effectors targeting accessible regions of Spike and Nucleocapsid transcripts achieved >98% silencing efficiency in virus-free models. Further, optimized and multiplexed Cas13b CRISPR RNAs (crRNAs) suppress viral replication in mammalian cells infected with replication-competent SARS-CoV-2, including the recently emerging dominant variant of concern B.1.1.7. The comprehensive mutagenesis of guide-target interaction demonstrated that single-nucleotide mismatches does not impair the capacity of a potent single crRNA to simultaneously suppress ancestral and mutated SARS-CoV-2 strains in infected mammalian cells, including the Spike D614G mutant. The specificity, efficiency and rapid deployment properties of reprogrammed Cas13b described here provide a molecular blueprint for antiviral drug development to suppress and prevent a wide range of SARS-CoV-2 mutants, and is readily adaptable to other emerging pathogenic viruses.

Internal ribosomal entry sites (IRESs) of certain plus-strand RNA viruses direct cap-independent initiation of protein synthesis both in vitro and in vivo, as can be shown with artificial dicistronic mRNAs or with chimeric viral genomes in which IRES elements were exchanged from one virus to another. Whereas IRESs of picornaviruses can be readily analyzed in the context of their cognate genome by genetics, the IRES of hepatitis C virus (HCV), a Hepacivirus belonging to Flaviviridae, cannot as yet be subjected to such analyses because of difficulties in propagating HCV in tissue culture or in experimental animals. This enigma has been overcome by constructing a poliovirus (PV) whose translation is controled by the HCV IRES. Within the PV/HCV chimera, the HCV IRES has been subjected to systematic 5 deletion analyses to yield a virus (P/H710-d40) whose replication kinetics match that of the parental poliovirus type 1 (Mahoney). Genetic analyses of the HCV IRES in P/H710-d40 have confirmed that the 5 border maps to domain II, thereby supporting the validity of the experimental approach applied here. Additional genetic experiments have provided evidence for a novel structural region within domain II. Arguments that the phenotypes observed with the mutant chimera relate solely to impaired genome replication rather than deficiencies in translation have been dispelled by constructing novel dicistronic poliovirus replicons with the gene order [PV]cloverleaf-[HCV]IRES-⌬core-R-Luc-[PV] IRES-F-Luc-P2,3-3NTR, which have allowed the measurement of HCV IRES-dependent translation independently from the replication of the replicon RNA.Higher-order structures of RNA can be deduced by a combination of different experimental approaches. These include (i) computer-aided folding, favorably under consideration of phylogenetic kinship of the RNAs, (ii) limited enzymatic and chemical degradation, and (iii) analysis by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy or X-ray crystallography (11). Genetic analysis is another powerful tool, particularly if the RNA structure is a component of a self-replicating entity such as an RNA virus genome.Internal ribosomal entry sites (IRESs) regulate translation in eukaryotic systems in a cap-independent manner. Present in genomes of some plus-strand RNA viruses and some cellular mRNAs, IRES elements belong to the most complex cis-acting signals known in the RNA world (52). In comparison to the Shine-Dalgarno signal (42), which determines internal entry of the ribosomal subunits into prokaryotic (multicistronic) mRNA, viral IRESs are colossal (up to 400 nucleotides), yet little if any of their sequence is dispensable (54).IRES elements have been discovered in genomes of picornaviruses (20, 21, 33), of members of the genus Hepacivirus (hepatitis C virus [HCV] [47]) and Pestivirus (e.g. bovine viral diarrhea virus, [36]) of the family Flaviviridae, and of some insect RNA viruses (for example, Plautia stali intestine virus [41]). In animal viruses, IRES elements map to 5Ј nontranslated regions (5ЈNTR) (53), ...