Lecture 24

Transgenes and Gene Targeting in Mice II

In the last lecture we discussed sickle cell disease (SCD) in humans, and I
told you the first part of a rather long, but interesting, story describing how a
mouse model for this human disease has been generated. I only got half way
through the story…we will cover the rest today. In the last lecture we
discussed how the human β-globin gene with the sickle mutation (βSH) was
introduced as a transgene in mice, in the hope that it would cause the
precipitation of hemoglobin and the sickling of mouse red blood cells (RBCs);
had this happened this would have generated an animal model for SCD. If you
recall, the transgenic mouse did not have sickling RBCs, and to try to fix this,
the human α-globin gene was also introduced into the mouse genome…but still
the doubly transgenic mouse did not have sickling RBCs. The solution to this
was to inactivate the endogenous mouse α-globin and β-globin genes, and
that’s what we will cover today. BUT, before then, I want to share with you
some great questions that I got after the last lecture, and some responses to
those questions.
βSH αH Great Questions from students after
βM αM αM the last lecture
αH
Inject foreign DNA into
βSH one of the pronuclei
Pronuclei
βM αM αM • How do you know it didn’t integrate into an
important gene?
Fertilized mouse egg prior
• Can’t the phenotype (if you get one) be to fusion of male and female
pronuclei
because of the disruption of an endogenous
gene? Transfer injected eggs
PROBLEM: These mice still do not have RBCs that sickle very well. into foster mother.

The mouse still has mouse α and β globin molecules and their • How do you know that the human globin
proteins were expressed?
presence is enough to prevent the human hemoglobins from forming
fibers, in much the same way that humans heterozygous for the • Why didn’t the human βS-globin gene
sickle mutation do not normally have RBCs that sickle. recombine with the mouse β-globin gene?
About 10-30% of offspring
will contain foreign DNA in
• Could one inject the w.t. human β-globin chromosomes of all their
gene into a human embryo to correct the tissues and germ line

deficiency? Breed mice expressing

SOLUTION: Need to get rid of the endogenous mouse α and β foreign DNA to propagate
DNA in germ line
globin genes by targeted homologous recombination to generate
“Knock-out” mice Figure by MIT OCW.

So…how do we “get rid of” the endogenous mouse α-globin and β-globin
genes? Just like making transgenic
mice this involves some
manipulations of the mouse
embryo…but this is a much more
Images removed due to copyright reasons. complex process, and some
background about the
preimplantation mouse embryo is
needed. For about 4-5 days after
fertilization, the mouse embryo is
freefloating (and therefore accessible) and all of the cells that will eventually
form the mouse remain totipotent, meaning that they have the potential to
differentaite into any, and every, mouse cell type. This has been shown in
various dramatic ways. For instance, if the four-cell embryo is dissected and
each cell implanted into a different foster mother, four identical mice will be
born. More interestingly, if cells from two genetically different pre-implantation
embryos (e.g., embryos destined to produce mice with different fur colors) are
simply mixed together (they are sticky) and implanted into a foster mother, a
single chimeric mouse will be born.
Early findings Essentially the two types of
revealed that totipotent cells mix together and
the produce an animal that has a
preimplantation micture two types of cells in its
mouse embryo body. This animal has four genetic
Images removed due to
is remarkably parents!!
copyright reasons.
malleable, and The ability of these genetically
that cells in the different totipotent cells to mix
the together in the preimplantation
preimplantation embryo is crucial for the mouse
embryo are
gene knock-out technology.
TOTIPOTENT

In order to make a directed genetic change in a specific mouse gene we exploit

homologous recombination just as we have discussed for E. coli and S.
cerevisiae. However, this is much harder to do in mammalian cells than
bacteria and yeast. In yeast, when a linear
In yeast
DNA duplex is introduced into the cell, Tn7TR lacZ URA3 tet Tn7TR

about 90% of the time that that DNA is

integrated into the yeast genome it is done
Yeast genomic DNA
by the homologous recombination
machinery such that incoming DNA In yeast homologous recombination to replace an
endogenous gene with the transfected DNA fragment
fragment is swapped for the endogenous occurs >90% of the time
gene. In mammalian cells the DNA that is In mammalian cells such homologous recombination
integrated into the genome is almost always between genome and transfected DNA fragment is very
rare (<0.01% of the time)
at a non-homologous site, and the
Have to have clever selection schemes to get the rare cells
frequency of homologous replacement of an that integrated a transfected DNA fragment by targeted
endogenous sequence is about 10-3 to 10-5. homologous recombination

What this means is that we have to allow thousands of integration events to

take place, and to be able to identify the integration event we want…namely an
integration even that took place by homologous recombination.

The first crucial development for this technology was being able to grow the
totipotent cells from preimplantation embryos in culture in the lab; these
are called mouse embryonic stem cells (ES cells); the crucial development
was to devise a clever way to select integrated a DNA construct by
homologous recombination.
Cells from the inner cells mass of a preimplantation embryo at the
blastocyst stage could be removed and cultured in the lab without the cells
losing their totipotency; i.e., even after being cultured in the lab for many
years these cells can still be introduced back into a preimplantation embryo and
go on to make all the tissues of a mouse. What this means, is that the cells
can be genetically manipulated whilst in culture…and then put back into a
mouse preimplantation embryo!!

neor tkHSV
Preimplantation blastocyst from an Specifically replace your gene
embryo that would produce a mouse of interest (α or β-globin genes)
with GREY FUR with a mutated version of that
Gene X replacement construct
gene in cultured ES cells
ES ES Homologous
Nonhomologous
Construct cells cells recombination
recombination

ES-cell DNA ES-cell DNA

Other genes Gene X

Random Gene-targeted
insertion insertion

No mutation in gene X Mutation in gene X

Can remove totipotent Select for the genetically altered Cells are resistant to G-418 Cells are resistant to G-418
EMBRYONIC STEM CELLS cells you want but sensitive to ganciclovir and ganciclovir
(ES cells) and culture in vitro
Formation of ES Cells Carrying a Knockout Mutation

Targeting Construct
R V
HS
eo
N TK

Now you inject the genetically modified

Select for the NeoR gene ES cells (originally from a blastocyst for a
and against the TKHSV gene mouse with GREY FUR) and inject into a
new blastocyst that would normally give
rise to a mouse with WHITE FUR
The only cells to survive
have undergone a targeted
The blastocyst, now containing
homologous recombination
two types of totipotent embryonic stem
event at the gene of interest
cells, is implanted into a foster mother;
she will give birth to the chimeric offspring

Select fot the genetically

altered cells you want

Figures by MIT OCW.

Essentially, once you have identified mouse ES cells (originally from a grey
furred mouse) that have been genetically altered the way you wish…these cells
can be used to generate a living animal that contains descendents from these
totipotent ES cells. Lets see how you get from there to a mouse in which
every cell contains that genetic alteration.
 The goal is to have the H eterozygous for H eterozygous for
GERM CELLS (sperm and the knocked out the knocked out
Foster gene gene
Mom eggs) derived from the
genetically modified ES
cells; if so all the
offspring would have
GREY FUR when mated
with a white mouse grey α M +/- α M +/-
Some mice are Chimeric fur is a dominant trait

α M +/+ α M +/- α M -/-

Since the “grey” ES cells were
heterozygous for the KO’d
gene, only half the sperm have
25% 50% 25%
the KO gene, so 50% of the
grey offspring are
H om ozygous m utant
heterozygous for the KO. m ice… Viable??

The blastocyts implanted into the foster mother will produce animals with
varying contributions from the “white fur ES cells” and the “grey fur ES cells”,
the latter having been genetically manipulated to have an altered gene, e.g., a
mutated α-globin gene. The crucial step is that the gonads be derived from
the genetically altered “grey fur ES cells”, because then the genetic alteration
can be passed on to an offspring (which will have grey fur) in which every cell
carries the genetic alteration. These offspring can then be crossed to generate
a mouse that is homozygous for the altered gene. This can be done for
generating mice with deletion mutations in the α-globin gene and then again
for deletion mutations in the β-globin gene.

βM
βSH
αM αM
αH
SPERM
βSH αH
αΜ
Μ+βΜ
Μ+
αΜ Μ Μ
Μ− αΜ
Μ+βΜ −β Μ+ αΜΜ−βΜΜ− is essentially
This is essentially an
an
βM αM αM
AaBb X X AaBb
AaBb cross
cross
+/+ +/+ +/+ +/- +/- +/+ +/- +/- the A
where the A and
and BB genes
genes
αΜ+βΜ
Μ+
SOLUTION: Need to get rid of the endogenous mouse α and β
globin genes by targeted homologous recombination to generate on different
lie on different
“Knock-out” mice chromosomes and
chromosomes and are
are
βSH αH
αΜ+βΜ
Μ− +/+ +/- +/+ -/- +/- +/- +/- -/- therefore unlinked.
therefore unlinked.
neo
βMR neoR
Neo Neo
EGGS

βSH αH
Human transgenes
The Human transgenes
neo neoR +/- +/+ +/- +/- -/- +/-
homozygous in
are homozygous in both
both
NeoR Neo
αΜ−βΜ
Μ+ -/- +/+
parents and
parents and soso will
will be
be
present in
present in all
all offspring.
offspring.
βSH αH
αΜ−βΜ
Μ−
+/- +/- +/- -/- -/- +/- -/- -/- 1/16 offspring have
1/16 offspring have the
the
βM αM αM
desired genotype
desired genotype
βSH αH
neoR neoR
Neo Neo
ββSHSH αHH
α
x
Neo R NeoRR
Neo
βSH αH ββSHSH αHH
α
βM αM αM
βSH αH Neo R NeoRR
Neo
neo neo
NeoR NeoR

There are many different mating schemes that one could use to generate mice
that are homozygous for deletions in both the mouse α-globin gene and the
mouse β-globin gene, and that also carry the trangenes encoding the
human α-globin gene and the human β-globin gene with the sickle cell
mutation. What I have shown you is just one way to obtain this mouse. It
should be noted that after birth, this mouse ONLY expressed human
hemoglobin, and the mouse is therefore said to be humanized.

Was it all worth it? Do we have a The outstanding news is that this mouse
Sickle Cell Disease mouse model? does indeed represent an excellent model of
αH
Sickle Cell Disease which is now being
βH
S

used to explore therapies for SCD that are

R R Neo
Neo
βH
S αH

Neo R R Neo very difficult to carry out on human

Mouse RBCs Sickle!!
Sickled Mouse RBCs
clog the small blood
SCD mouse has huge
spleen…working
populations. So far, these mice have been
vessels in tissues overtime to clear
defective RBCs
used to explore the effectiveness of new
drugs in ameliorating the tendency of RBCs
Images removed due to copyright reasons.
to sickle. Moreover, the mouse has been
used to test out Gene Therapy approaches
SCD wt
to treating the disease. Both of these
approaches have been successful in the
mouse, paving the way for trying out these treatments in people.

Circulating RBCs
• Isolate mouse
Bone Marrow stem
cells
Images removed due to copyright reasons. Images removed due to copyright reasons. • Transfect with
Please see figure 4 in Iyamu, E. W., E. A. Turner, and T. Asakura. Human β-globin
"Niprisan (Nix-0699) Improves the Survival Rates of Transgenic gene that produces
Sickle Cell Mice Under Acute Severe Hypoxic Conditions." a protein that
Br J Haematol. 122, no. 6 (Sep. 2003): 1001-8. Kidney tissue damage prevents sickling
• Put the modified
bone marrow back
into a mouse
• Monitor
Sickle Cell SCD Mouse
expression of the
Disease (SCD) After Gene transgene and the
Lung of control mice Lung of mice taking Niprisan Mouse Therapy health of the mouse