Gene deletion mutants generated through homologous recombination are the gold standard for gene function studies. The OSCAR (One Step Construction of Agrobacterium-Recombination-ready-plasmids) method for rapid generation of deletion constructs is described. Agrobacterium mediated fungal transformation follows. Finally, a PCR based confirmation method of gene deletions in fungal transformants is presented.
Precise deletion of gene(s) of interest, while leaving the rest of the genome unchanged, provides the ideal product to determine that particular gene's function in the living organism. In this protocol the OSCAR method of precise and rapid deletion plasmid construction is described. OSCAR relies on the cloning system in which a single recombinase reaction is carried out containing the purified PCR-amplified 5' and 3' flanks of the gene of interest and two plasmids, pA-Hyg OSCAR (the marker vector) and pOSCAR (the assembly vector). Confirmation of the correctly assembled deletion vector is carried out by restriction digestion mapping followed by sequencing. Agrobacterium tumefaciens is then used to mediate introduction of the deletion construct into fungal spores (referred to as ATMT). Finally, a PCR assay is described to determine if the deletion construct integrated by homologous or non-homologous recombination, indicating gene deletion or ectopic integration, respectively. This approach has been successfully used for deletion of numerous genes in Verticillium dahliae and in Fusarium verticillioides among other species.
Genetic dissection is a powerful methodology for determining the functional importance of individual or combinations of genes. A standard approach to understand the role of specific genes is production of single gene mutants unaltered in any other gene. The most powerful and least potentially confounding approach is complete and precise deletion of a gene of interest's open reading frame (GOI ORF) without damage to any other gene function.
Because standard ligation approaches for deletion plasmid generation require multiple steps, the rational for OSCAR1 was to produce a more rapid in vitro approach. Figure 1 depicts the assembly process in the OSCAR approach. The method described here has the advantage of combining rapid construction of individual gene deletion vectors in a single multipart reaction in combination with subsequent Agrobacterium tumefaciens mediated transformation (ATMT). OSCAR is very rapid and compares well with other strategies such as use of Gibson assembly in yeast2. The OSCAR method has been used successfully with several Ascomycota species of fungi. These species include: Fusarium verticillioides (unpublished), Verticillium dahliae3, Setosphaeria turcica4, Metarhizium robertsii5, Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. vasinfectum6, Pestalotiopsis microspora7, Colletotrichum higginsianum8, and Dothistroma septosporum9 and Sarocladium zeae (unpublished).
This protocol provides step-by-step instruction for the method including primer design, flank PCR amplification, the OSCAR BP reaction, deletion construct structure confirmation, transformation of Agrobacterium with the construct followed by ATMT based transfer of the deletion construct into the fungal cells, and finally differentiating fungal deletion mutants from those with ectopically integrated deletion constructs.
1. Primer Design for PCR Amplification of Gene Flanks
2. Production of OSCAR Constructs
3. Agrobacterium tumefaciens Mediated Transformation (ATMT) of Fungi
4. Deletion Mutant Identification by PCR
The OSCAR method, in a single reaction, generates a plasmid containing the flanks of the target gene to be deleted surrounding the selectable marker cassette. The production of deletion constructs using OSCAR is very efficient. The system can, however, produce partial constructs containing some but not all three fragments (the two gene flanks and the selectable marker). Generally, the majority of E. coli transformants contain the correct OSCAR construct. For example, Figure 2 depicts the OSCAR deletion construct for the Verticillium dahliae gene VDAG_06812. In this case the flanks of VDAG_06812 lack HindIII or KpnI sites and therefore a plasmid insert of 4,247 bp should be released. Figure 3 shows HindIII-KpnI restriction enzyme double digestion confirmation of the correct plasmid structure except for lanes 5 and 11 representing anomalous constructs. Figure 4 shows final confirmation of two different gene deletions by Southern blot. Figure 5 shows a definitive PCR approach as an alternative to Southern blot.
Figure 1: OSCAR deletion construction reaction. The OSCAR deletion construction process includes separate PCR amplification of the 5' and 3' gene flanks, followed by a BP clonase reaction with the combined purified flank products and the binary and selection marker plasmids. B1r, B2r, B3, B4, P1r, P2r, P3, P4, R1, R2, L3 and L4 represent lambda recombination sites. Re-print with permission from reference1.
Figure 2: OSCAR deletion construct for Verticillium dahliae gene VDAG_06812. Positions of restriction enzyme recognition and primer annealing sites to verify correct deletion construct structure are shown. Re-print with permission from reference1.
Figure 3: Restriction digestion confirmation of the deletion construct structure of VDAG_06812 with KpnI and HindIII. Plasmids were double digested and analyzed by gel electrophoresis on a 0.8% agarose gel. The correct construct generates two bands, of about 6.9 kb and 4.2 kb, representing the binary vector backbone and the HygR marker fused to the target gene flanks, respectively. Re-print with permission from reference1.
Figure 4: Southern blot hybridization confirming deletion of VDAG_02161 and VDAG_09930 in V. dahliae using OSCAR deletion constructs. Genomic DNAs were digested with BclI. They were then probed simultaneously with VDAG_02161 and VDAG_09930 ORF probes. Hybridization bands are 2,757 bp and 1,426 bp for the wild type alleles of VDAG_02161 and VDAG_09930, respectively. Samples are as follows: lane 1: wild type strain VdLs.17; lane 2: deletion mutant strain 02161.1; lane 3: deletion mutant strain 02161.3; lane 4: ectopic transformant strain Ect 02161.2; lane 5: deletion mutant strain 09930.3; lane 6: deletion mutant strain 09930.10; lane 7: ectopic transformant strain Ect 09930.4. Re-print with permission from reference1.
Figure 5: Deletion mutant confirmation by PCR. Analysis of deletion and ectopic Fusarium verticillioides transformants for gene FVEG_13253. Lanes 1 top and bottom, marker; lanes 2-6 top gel transformant PCR 5' out fragment amplification; lanes 7-11 top gel ORF amplification; lanes 2-6 bottom gel Hyg gene amplification; lanes 7-11 bottom gel 3' out fragment amplification. Samples are deletion strains 11/31 (lanes 2 and 7), 11/32 (lanes 3 and 8), 11/33 (lanes 4 and 9), and ectopic transformants 11/34 (lanes 5 and 10), and 11/35 (lanes 6 and 11).
Primer | Use | Sequence |
Primer O1-(attB2r) | Amplification of 5´ flank, primer forward | 5’-GGGGACAGCTTTCTTGTACAAAGTGGAA |
Primer O2-(attB1r) | Amplification of 5´ flank, primer reverse | 5’-GGGGACTGCTTTTTTGTACAAACTTGT |
Primer O3-(attB4) | Amplification of 3´ flank, primer forward | 5’-GGGGACAACTTTGTATAGAAAAGTTGTT |
Primer O4-(attB3) | Amplification of 3´ flank, primer reverse | 5’-GGGGACAACTTTGTATAATAAAGTTGT |
Table 1: Specific OSCAR primer 5' extensions added to gene specific primer sequences.
Primer | Use | Sequence |
OSC-F | OSCAR forward sequencing primer, sequences sense strand of 5’ flank | 5’-CTAGAGGCGCGCCGATATCCT |
OSC-R | OSCAR reverse sequencing primer, sequences anti-sense strand of 5’ flank | 5’-CGCCAATATATCCTGTCAAACACT |
HygR (210) | Reverse sequencing primer, sequences anti-sense strand of 5’ flank | 5’-GCCGATGCAAAGTGCCGATAAACA |
HygF (850) | Forward sequencing primer, sequences sense strand of 3’ flank | 5’-AGAGCTTGGTTGACGGCAATTTCG |
New Hyg Marker Forward | To amplify the hygromycin resistance gene as a control (together with New Hyg Marker Reverse primer below) | 5'-GACAGGAACGAGGACATTATTA |
New Hyg Marker Reverse | To amplify the hygromycin resistance gene as a control (together with New Hyg Marker Forward primer above) | 5'-GCTCTGATAGAGTTGGTCAAG |
Table 2: Primers for analysis of OSCAR deletion constructs.
One Step Construction of Agrobacterium-Recombination-ready-plasmids (OSCAR) has been successfully employed with an ever-increasing number of Ascomycota fungi. The method should also easily be applicable to the Basidiomycota and species from other fungal phyla (with appropriate promoters driving selectable marker genes), assuming Agrobacterium mediated transformation and homologous recombination are possible. Additional marker vectors have been generated to diversify choices of anti-fungal compound as well as allow the production of double and higher order mutants. These include resistance to G418, nourseothricin, and recently the herbicides glufosinate ammonium and chlorimuron ethyl4.
The method was worked out for use with Verticillium dahliae from which the images presented here are primarily derived1. More recently OSCAR has been used extensively for deletion of genes in the mycotoxigenic fungus Fusarium verticillioides. Over 60 deletion constructs have been made and deletions mutants for more than 30 genes generated (unpublished).
In its current iteration the process requires about 4-6 weeks to have a set of confirmed deletion mutants in hand. The following is a brief list of the major OSCAR steps and approximate time needed to accomplish them: 1) Design and procurement of OSCAR primers based on genome data (5 days), 2) flank amplification and cloning, (2 days), 3) clone confirmation by miniprep and sequencing (1 week), 4) introduction of plasmid into Agrobacterium for ATMT (4 days), 5) production of transformants by ATMT in Fusarium verticillioides and grow out (2 weeks, note that this is dependent on growth rate of the fungus under study), thermolysis and PCR determination of transformant genotypes (2 days), 6) single sporing, genotype confirmation and storage (1-2 weeks).
The adaptation of OSCAR to true high throughput has not been attempted to our knowledge but should be practical. The reactions are sufficiently robust to allow for successful application in multi-well format. The use of robotics would certainly advance this approach. The OSCAR method has the time saving advantage of requiring a single recombination reaction containing the amplified flanks and two plasmids pOSCAR and pA-Hyg OSCAR. Similar approaches require generation of an entry clone that has to be confirmed and then used in a second reaction to generate the construct of interest. Plasmids pOSCAR and pA-Hyg OSCAR mentioned are available via Addgene or the Fungal Genetics Stock Center15. Other OSCAR marker plasmids such as pA-Bar-OSCAR and pA-Sur-OSCAR may be available from authors5.
The authors have nothing to disclose.
The authors thank the following undergraduate and high school students for their work to generate OSCAR mutants in Fusarium verticillioiodes: Anjellica Miller, Athar Naseer, Xiu Lin, Katelyn Woodburry, Chelsea Patterson, Kathleen Robertson, Krystina Bradley, Ashton Rogers, Alexis McKensie, Manny Hernandez, Ashli Crepsac, Jeff Delong, Christian King, Gi Jeong, Maria Belding, Christy Burre, Daniel O'Meara, Lauren (Victoria) Cook, Jake Goodman, Sampriti De, Oge Okoye, Alyssa Beckstead, Garrett Hibbs, Nick Goldstein, Caroline Twum, Chris Benson, Louis Stokes, Hannah Itell, Jane Hulse, Jasim Mohammed, James Loggins, Kelli Russell, Gre'Nisha Jones, Kristin Sheaffer, Mariam Hammady, Ava Wilson, Katrina Bazemore, Toney Harper, Karlin McGhee, Mohmed Momin, Rima Momin, Thi Ngoc Le and Angel Pham.
FungiDB | Database/ http://fungidb.org/fungidb/ | ||
IDT PrimerQuest | IDT | Primer design online software/ http://www.idtdna.com/Primerquest/Home/Index | |
Microsoft Word | Sequence file manipulation | ||
Low Na LB Spec 100 medium | E. coli transformant selection, composition: 1% tryptone, 0.05% NaCl, 0.5% yeast extract, 1.5 % agar if for solid medium | ||
Co-cultivation medium | ATMT transformation induction (Reference 12) | ||
Aspergillus minimal medium with Hygromycin | Fungal transformant selection | ||
PDA medium | Acumedia | 7149A | Single spore slant tubes |
PDA-Hyg-Kan medium | Fungal ransformant isolation, PDA containing 150 μg/ml hygromycin B and 100 μg/ml Kanamycin; | ||
Glass beads | Genlantis | C400100 | Plate spreading |
Nitrocellulose filters (47mm) | Fisher | 09-719-555 | Co-culturing for ATMT |
Various centifuge tubes | multiple preps | ||
Petri plates (various) | Culturing of bacteria and Fungi | ||
pA-Hyg OSCAR | Addgene | 29640 | Selectable marker vector |
pOSCAR | Addgene | 29639 | Assembly vector |
DH5a One Shot Competent E. coli cells | Life Technologies | 12297-016 | BP reaction transformation |
ccdB survival E. coli cells | Life Technologies | A10460 | Maintenance of pOSCAR |
Wooden transfer sticks | Colony streaking | ||
Toothpicks | Colony picking | ||
Microcentrifuge | Pelleting Bacteria etc | ||
Preparative centrifuge | Fungal spore collection | ||
Dissecting microscope | Single spore isolation | ||
Automated Cell Counter | Spore suspension calculation | ||
Compound microscope | Hemocytometer cell counting | ||
QIAquick PCR Purification Kit | Qiagen | 28104 | PCR gene flank produict purification |
TaKaRa LA Taq | Takara Bio USA | RR002A | Hi Fidelity taq polymerase for OSCAR flank generation |
Hygromycin B | InvivoGen | ant-hg-5 | |
Spectinomycin | Sigma | 22189-32-8 | |
Cefotaxim | TCI America | C2224 | |
Moxalactam | Sigma-Aldrich | 43963 | |
GelRed | Phenix Research Products | RGB-4103 | Post staining agarose gels |
Qiagen QIAquick PCR Purification Kit (Cat. No. 28104) | |||
(OneShot_ Mach1TM T1R or One Shot_ OmniMAX™ 2 T1R from Invitrogen) | Thermo Fisher Scientific | C862003 | |
Gateway BP Clonase II Enzyme mix | Thermo Fisher Scientific | 11789020 | Used to assemble deletion construct in pOSAR |
PrimerQuest tool | IDT | Used in step 1.4; available on http://www.idtdna.com/Primerquest/Home/Index |