Skip to main content

Write a PREreview

Chromosome-Specific Aneuploidy Engineering via dCas9-Induced Centromeric Chromatin Relaxation

Posted
Server
bioRxiv
DOI
10.1101/2025.04.25.650684

Aneuploidy, characterised by an imbalanced chromosome copy number, is the cause of chromosomal disorders1as well as a hallmark of cancer2. Beyond pathological conditions, recent studies highlight the presence of lineage-specific recurrent aneuploidies in normal tissues3–5. Despite its prevalence, the functional significance of aneuploidies in cellular dysfunction and diseases remains elusive, hindered by experimental challenges in engineering relevant aneuploidy models for mechanistic investigation. Here, we discover that the centromeric recruitment of catalytically dead Cas9 (dCas9) induces efficient chromosome-specific mis-segregation, applicable to all 24 human chromosomes. We show that the mis-segregation phenotype is driven by dCas9-induced kinetochore chromatin relaxation, resulting in whole chromosome aneuploidy or arm-level aneuploidy with centromeric breakage. In induced pluripotent stem cells, we demonstrate aneuploidy manipulation for chromosome 13, 21, X, and Y. In primary renal epithelial cells, we engineered chromosome 3(p) loss, the tumour-initiating event in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC)6.. Overall, we describe a simple, efficient, and versatile approach for chromosome-specific aneuploidy generation that can facilitate preclinical aneuploid model development for functional interrogation of aneuploidy.

You can write a PREreview of Chromosome-Specific Aneuploidy Engineering via dCas9-Induced Centromeric Chromatin Relaxation. A PREreview is a review of a preprint and can vary from a few sentences to a lengthy report, similar to a journal-organized peer-review report.

Before you start

We will ask you to log in with your ORCID iD. If you don’t have an iD, you can create one.

What is an ORCID iD?

An ORCID iD is a unique identifier that distinguishes you from everyone with the same or similar name.

Start now