Using CRISPR/Cas9 for Gene Knockout in Immunodeficient NSG Mice

NOD.Cg-Prkdc(scid) Il2rg(tm1Wjl/)SzJ (NSG) mice are an immunodeficient strain that enables human cell xenografts. However, NSG mice possess a complex genetic background that would complicate cross-breeding with other inbred transgenic or knockout mouse strains to establish a congenic strain with a desired genetic modification in the NSG background. Newly developed clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/Cas9 technology enables modification of the mouse genome at the zygote stage without the need for extensive cross-breeding or the use of embryonic stem cells. In this chapter, we use the knockout of the X-linked Cybb gene as an example to describe our procedures for genetically modifying NSG mice using the CRISPR/Cas9 method. Briefly, two sgRNAs were designed and made to target exon 1 and exon 3 of the Cybb gene, and either sgRNA was then microinjected together with Cas9 mRNA into fertilized eggs collected from NSG mice. The injected embryos are subsequently transferred into the oviducts of pseudopregnant surrogate mothers. Offspring born to the foster mothers were genotyped by PCR and DNA sequencing. In this chapter, we describe our experiment procedures in detail and report our genotyping results for demonstrating that NSG mice can be genetically modified using the CRISPR/Cas9 technology in a highly efficient manner.