Rapid and specific degradation of endogenous proteins in mouse models using auxin-inducible degrons

  1. Lewis Macdonald
  2. Gillian C Taylor
  3. Jennifer Margaret Brisbane
  4. Ersi Christodoulou
  5. Lucy Scott
  6. Alex von Kriegsheim
  7. Janet Rossant
  8. Bin Gu  Is a corresponding author
  9. Andrew J Wood  Is a corresponding author
  1. University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
  2. Hospital for Sick Children, Canada
  3. Michigan State University, United States

Abstract

Auxin-inducible degrons are a chemical genetic tool for targeted protein degradation and are widely used to study protein function in cultured mammalian cells. Here we develop CRISPR-engineered mouse lines that enable rapid and highly specific degradation of tagged endogenous proteins in vivo. Most but not all cell types are competent for degradation. By combining ligand titrations with genetic crosses to generate animals with different allelic combinations, we show that degradation kinetics depend upon the dose of the tagged protein, ligand, and the E3 ligase substrate receptor TIR1. Rapid degradation of condensin I and condensin II - two essential regulators of mitotic chromosome structure - revealed that both complexes are individually required for cell division in precursor lymphocytes, but not in their differentiated peripheral lymphocyte derivatives. This generalisable approach provides unprecedented temporal control over the dose of endogenous proteins in mouse models, with implications for studying essential biological pathways and modelling drug activity in mammalian tissues.

Data availability

Proteomics data underlying Figure 6B have been submitted to the PRIDE database under accession PXD032374. All other primary data, including flow cytometry files, fluorescence imaging and uncropped western blot scans are available through the DRYAD digital repository at https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.g1jwstqt9. Requests for the Rosa26Tir1 transgenic mouse line should be addressed to Bin Gu (guibin1@msu.edu), and requests for the Ncaph- and Ncaph2-AID:Clover lines should be addressed to Andrew Wood (Andrew.j.wood@ed.ac.uk).

The following data sets were generated

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Lewis Macdonald

    MRC Human Genetics Unit, Institute of Genetics and Cancer, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  2. Gillian C Taylor

    MRC Human Genetics Unit, Institute of Genetics and Cancer, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  3. Jennifer Margaret Brisbane

    MRC Human Genetics Unit, Institute of Genetics and Cancer, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-4943-5331
  4. Ersi Christodoulou

    MRC Human Genetics Unit, Institute of Genetics and Cancer, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  5. Lucy Scott

    MRC Human Genetics Unit, Institute of Genetics and Cancer, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  6. Alex von Kriegsheim

    Cancer Research UK Edinburgh Centre, Institute of Genetics and Cancer, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-4952-8573
  7. Janet Rossant

    Program in Developmental and Stem Cell Biology, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-3731-5466
  8. Bin Gu

    Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, Michigan State University, Lansing, United States
    For correspondence
    gubin1@msu.edu
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  9. Andrew J Wood

    MRC Human Genetics Unit, Institute of Genetics and Cancer, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
    For correspondence
    andrew.wood@igmm.ed.ac.uk
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-0653-2070

Funding

Medical Research Council

  • Lewis Macdonald
  • Gillian C Taylor
  • Jennifer Margaret Brisbane
  • Ersi Christodoulou
  • Lucy Scott
  • Andrew J Wood

Wellcome Trust (102560/Z/13/Z)

  • Lewis Macdonald
  • Gillian C Taylor
  • Jennifer Margaret Brisbane
  • Ersi Christodoulou
  • Lucy Scott
  • Andrew J Wood

Canadian Institutes of Health Research (JR FDN-143334)

  • Janet Rossant
  • Bin Gu

Medical Research Council (MC_PC_21040)

  • Andrew J Wood

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Ethics

Animal experimentation: All animal work was approved by a University of Edinburgh internal ethics committee and was performed in accordance with institutional guidelines under license by the UK Home Office. AID knock-in alleles were generated under project license PPL 60/4424. Rosa26Tir1 knockin mouse lines were generated under the Canadian Council on Animal Care Guidelines for Use of Animals in Research and Laboratory Animal Care under protocols approved by the Centre for Phenogenomics Animal Care Committee (20-0026H). Experiments involving double transgenic animals were conducted under the authority of UK project license PPL P16EFF7EE

Copyright

© 2022, Macdonald et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

Metrics

  • 8,123
    views
  • 1,111
    downloads
  • 25
    citations

Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.

Download links

A two-part list of links to download the article, or parts of the article, in various formats.

Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)

Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)

Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)

  1. Lewis Macdonald
  2. Gillian C Taylor
  3. Jennifer Margaret Brisbane
  4. Ersi Christodoulou
  5. Lucy Scott
  6. Alex von Kriegsheim
  7. Janet Rossant
  8. Bin Gu
  9. Andrew J Wood
(2022)
Rapid and specific degradation of endogenous proteins in mouse models using auxin-inducible degrons
eLife 11:e77987.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.77987

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.77987

Further reading

    1. Chromosomes and Gene Expression
    2. Genetics and Genomics
    Omid Gholamalamdari, Tom van Schaik ... Andrew S Belmont
    Research Article

    Models of nuclear genome organization often propose a binary division into active versus inactive compartments yet typically overlook nuclear bodies. Here, we integrated analysis of sequencing and image-based data to compare genome organization in four human cell types relative to three different nuclear locales: the nuclear lamina, nuclear speckles, and nucleoli. Although gene expression correlates mostly with nuclear speckle proximity, DNA replication timing correlates with proximity to multiple nuclear locales. Speckle attachment regions emerge as DNA replication initiation zones whose replication timing and gene composition vary with their attachment frequency. Most facultative LADs retain a partially repressed state as iLADs, despite their positioning in the nuclear interior. Knock out of two lamina proteins, Lamin A and LBR, causes a shift of H3K9me3-enriched LADs from lamina to nucleolus, and a reciprocal relocation of H3K27me3-enriched partially repressed iLADs from nucleolus to lamina. Thus, these partially repressed iLADs appear to compete with LADs for nuclear lamina attachment with consequences for replication timing. The nuclear organization in adherent cells is polarized with nuclear bodies and genomic regions segregating both radially and relative to the equatorial plane. Together, our results underscore the importance of considering genome organization relative to nuclear locales for a more complete understanding of the spatial and functional organization of the human genome.

    1. Chromosomes and Gene Expression
    Ashwin Govindan, Nicholas K Conrad
    Research Article

    O-GlcNAcylation is the reversible post-translational addition of β-N-acetylglucosamine to serine and threonine residues of nuclear and cytoplasmic proteins. It plays an important role in several cellular processes through the modification of thousands of protein substrates. O-GlcNAcylation in humans is mediated by a single essential enzyme, O-GlcNAc transferase (OGT). OGT, together with the sole O-GlcNAcase OGA, form an intricate feedback loop to maintain O-GlcNAc homeostasis in response to changes in cellular O-GlcNAc using a dynamic mechanism involving nuclear retention of its fourth intron. However, the molecular mechanism of this dynamic regulation remains unclear. Using an O-GlcNAc responsive GFP reporter cell line, we identify SFSWAP, a poorly characterized splicing factor, as a trans-acting factor regulating OGT intron detention. We show that SFSWAP is a global regulator of retained intron splicing and exon skipping that primarily acts as a negative regulator of splicing. In contrast, knockdown of SFSWAP leads to reduced inclusion of a ‘decoy exon’ present in the OGT retained intron which may mediate its role in OGT intron detention. Global analysis of decoy exon inclusion in SFSWAP and UPF1 double knockdown cells indicate altered patterns of decoy exon usage. Together, these data indicate a role for SFSWAP as a global negative regulator of pre-mRNA splicing and positive regulator of intron retention.