Figure 2. dCas9-MQ1Q147L induces efficient site-specific CpG methylation.
(a) Methylation levels (y axis) at Target 1 (on-target) between HOXA5 and HOXA6 loci along the length of the CGI (x axis). Red bars indicate the locations of sgRNA-binding sites and PAM is located on the right side of sgRNA-binding site. The guide RNAs included in the experiment depicted are indicated in each panel, with sg1-3 including all three HOXA5 Target1 guides. (b) Western blotting for protein expression levels of various dCas9-MQ1 mutant fusion proteins in HEK293T cells. Anti-FLAG antibody was utilized and β-actin was selected as internal control. (c) DNA methylation analysis as above when guides targeting the HOXA4 or EYA4 loci are co-transfected with dCas9-MQ1Q147L. Red bars indicate the locations of HOXA4 and EYA4 sgRNA-binding sites. The methylation ratio of CpG sites was calculated based on three biological replicates. Error bars represent mean±s.e.m. of biological triplicates.