Silencing the Spark: CRISPR/Cas9 Genome Editing in Weakly Electric Fish

Here, a protocol is presented to produce and rear CRISPR/Cas9 genome knockout electric fish. Outlined in detail are the required molecular biology, breeding, and husbandry requirements for both a gymnotiform and a mormyrid, and injection techniques to produce Cas9-induced indel F₀ larvae.

Electroreception and electrogenesis have changed in the evolutionary history of vertebrates. There is a striking degree of convergence in these independently derived phenotypes, which share a common genetic architecture. This is perhaps best exemplified by the numerous convergent features of gymnotiforms and mormyrids, two species-rich teleost clades that produce and detect weak electric fields and are called weakly electric fish. In the 50 years since the discovery that weakly electric fish use electricity to sense their surroundings and communicate, a growing community of scientists has gained tremendous insights into evolution of development, systems and circuits neuroscience, cellular physiology, ecology, evolutionary biology, and behavior. More recently, there has been a proliferation of genomic resources for electric fish. Use of these resources has already facilitated important insights with regards to the connection between genotype and phenotype in these species. A major obstacle to integrating genomics data with phenotypic data of weakly electric fish is a present lack of functional genomics tools. We report here a full protocol for performing CRISPR/Cas9 mutagenesis that utilizes endogenous DNA repair mechanisms in weakly electric fish. We demonstrate that this protocol is equally effective in both the mormyrid species Brienomyrus brachyistius and the gymnotiform Brachyhypopomus gauderio by using CRISPR/Cas9 to target indels and point mutations in the first exon of the sodium channel gene scn4aa. Using this protocol, embryos from both species were obtained and genotyped to confirm that the predicted mutations in the first exon of the sodium channel scn4aa were present. The knock-out success phenotype was confirmed with recordings showing reduced electric organ discharge amplitudes when compared to uninjected size-matched controls.

Electroreception and electrogenesis have changed in the evolutionary history of vertebrates. Two lineages of teleost fish, osteoglossiformes and siluriformes, evolved electroreception in parallel, and five lineages of teleosts (gymnotiformes, mormyrids, and the genera Astroscopus, Malapterurus, and Synodontis) evolved electrogenesis in parallel. There is a striking degree of convergence in these independently derived phenotypes, which share a common genetic architecture^1,2,3.

This is perhaps best exemplified by the numero....

All methods described here have been approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) of Michigan State University.

1. Selecting sgRNA Targets

NOTE: A protocol is provided for manual design of sgRNAs in step 1.1. This was utilized for scn4aa target selection. An additional protocol is provided to facilitate this process (step 1.2) using the EFISHGENOMICS web portal. It is advised that users select protocol 1.2, which featur.......

The sgRNA target sites were identified within exon 1 of scn4aa in both B. gauderio and B. brachyistius as described in Section 1. The sgRNAs were generated as described in Section 2. Following successful sgRNA selection and synthesis (Figure 1), in vitro cleavage was tested (Figure 2). The sgRNAs demonstrating in vitro cutting were then selected for single cell microinjections.

Adult fish were conditioned fo.......

The phenotypic richness of weakly electric fish, together with a recent proliferation of genomics resources, motivates a strong need for functional genomic tools in the weakly electric fish model. This system is particularly attractive because of the convergent evolution of numerous phenotypic traits in parallel lineages of fish, which are easily kept in the laboratory.

The protocol described here demonstrates the efficacy of the CRISPR/Cas9 technique in lineages of weakly electric fish that e.......

The authors acknowledge the heroic efforts of Monica Lucas, Katherine Shaw, Ryan Taylor, Jared Thompson, Nicole Robichaud, and Hope Healey for help with fish husbandry, data collection, and early protocol development. We would also like to thank the three reviewers for their suggestions to the manuscript. We believe the final product to be of better quality after addressing their comments. This work was funded by support from the National Science Foundation #1644965 and #1455405 to JRG, and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council DG grant to VLS.