RNA-guided Retargeting of Sleeping Beauty Transposition in Human Cells

Two different approaches of genomic modification are currently used for genome engineering and gene therapy: integrating vectors, which can efficiently integrate large transgenes but are unspecific with respect to their integration sites, and nuclease-based approaches, which are highly specific but not efficient at integrating large genetic cargoes. Here we demonstrate biased genome-wide integration of the Sleeping Beauty (SB) transposon by combining it with components of the CRISPR/Cas9 system. We provide proof-of-concept that it is possible to influence the target site selection of SB by fusing it to a catalytically inactive Cas9 (dCas9) and by providing a single guide RNA (sgRNA) against the human Alu retrotransposon. Enrichment of transposon integrations was dependent on the sgRNA, occurred in a relatively narrow, [~]200 bp window around the targeted sites and displayed an asymmetric pattern with a bias towards sites that are downstream of the sgRNA targets. Our data indicate that the targeting mechanism specified by CRISPR/Cas9 forces integration into genomic regions that are otherwise poor targets for SB transposition. Future modifications of this technology may allow the development of methods for efficient and specific gene insertion for precision genetic engineering.