Modulating Gene Expression in Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV)-Positive B Cell Lines with CRISPRa and CRISPRi

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) transforms small resting primary B cells into large lymphoblastoid cells which are able to grow and survive in vitro indefinitely. These cells represent a model for oncogenesis. In this unit, variants of conventional clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR), namely the CRISPR activation (CRISPRa) and CRISPR interference (CRISPRi) methods, are discussed in the context of gene regulation at genomic DNA promoter and enhancer elements. Lymphoblastoid B cell lines (LCLs) stably expressing nuclease-deficient Cas9 (dCas9)-VP64 (Cas9 associated with CRISPRa) or dCas9-KRAB (Cas9 associated with CRISPRi) are transduced with lentivirus that encodes a single guide RNA (sgRNA) that targets a specific gene locus. The ribonucleoprotein complex formed by the dCas9 molecule and its cognate sgRNA enables sequence-specific binding at a promoter or enhancer of interest to affect the expression of genes regulated by the targeted promoter or enhancer. © 2018 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.