Super-resolution imaging of fluorescently labeled, endogenous RNA Polymerase II in living cells with CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene editing
Author(s)
Cho, Won-ki; Jayanth, Namrata; Mullen, Susan; Tan, Tzer Han; Jung, Yoon; Cisse, Ibrahim I; ... Show more Show less
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Live cell imaging of mammalian RNA polymerase II (Pol II) has previously relied on random insertions of exogenous, mutant Pol II coupled with the degradation of endogenous Pol II using a toxin, α-amanitin. Therefore, it has been unclear whether over-expression of labeled Pol II under an exogenous promoter may have played a role in reported Pol II dynamics in vivo. Here we label the endogenous Pol II in mouse embryonic fibroblast (MEF) cells using the CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing system. Using single-molecule based super-resolution imaging in the living cells, we captured endogenous Pol II clusters. Consistent with previous studies, we observed that Pol II clusters were short-lived (cluster lifetime ~8 s) in living cells. Moreover, dynamic responses to serum-stimulation, and drug-mediated transcription inhibition were all in agreement with previous observations in the exogenous Pol II MEF cell line. Our findings suggest that previous exogenously tagged Pol II faithfully recapitulated the endogenous polymerase clustering dynamics in living cells, and our approach may in principle be used to directly label transcription factors for live cell imaging.
Date issued
2016-10Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Materials Processing Center; Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biology; Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of PhysicsJournal
Scientific Reports
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
Citation
Cho, Won-Ki et al. “Super-Resolution Imaging of Fluorescently Labeled, Endogenous RNA Polymerase II in Living Cells with CRISPR/Cas9-Mediated Gene Editing.” Scientific Reports 6.1 (2016): n. pag.
Version: Final published version
ISSN
2045-2322