Multiplexed Quantitative In Situ Hybridization for Mammalian Cells on a Slide: qHCR and dHCR Imaging (v3.0)

Protein expression/secretion boost by a novel unique 21-mer cis-regulatory motif (Exin21) via mRNA stabilization

Boosting protein production is invaluable in both industrial and academic applications. We discovered a novel expression-increasing 21-mer cis-regulatory motif (Exin21) that inserts between SARS-CoV-2 envelope (E) protein-encoding sequence and luciferase reporter gene. This unique Exin21 (CAACCGCGGTTCGCGGCCGCT), encoding a heptapeptide (QPRFAAA, designated as Qα), significantly (34-fold on average) boosted E production. Both synonymous and nonsynonymous mutations within Exin21 diminished its boosting capability, indicating the exclusive composition and order of 21 nucleotides. Further investigations demonstrated that Exin21/Qα addition could boost the production of multiple SARS-CoV-2 structural proteins (S, M, and N) and accessory proteins (NSP2, NSP16, and ORF3), and host cellular gene products such as IL-2, IFN-γ, ACE2, and NIBP. Exin21/Qα enhanced the packaging yield of S-containing pseudoviruses and standard lentivirus. Exin21/Qα addition on the heavy and light chains of human anti-SARS-CoV monoclonal antibody robustly increased antibody production. The extent of such boosting varied with protein types, cellular density/function, transfection efficiency, reporter dosage, secretion signaling, and 2A-mediated auto-cleaving efficiency. Mechanistically, Exin21/Qα increased mRNA synthesis/stability, and facilitated protein expression and secretion. These findings indicate that Exin21/Qα has the potential to be used as a universal booster for protein production, which is of importance for biomedicine research and development of bioproducts, drugs, and vaccines.

HiFENS: high-throughput FISH detection of endogenous pre-mRNA splicing isoforms

Splicing factors play an essential role in regulation of alternative pre-mRNA splicing. While much progress has been made in delineating the mechanisms of the splicing machinery, the identity of signal transduction pathways and upstream factors that regulate splicing factor activity is largely unknown. A major challenge in the discovery of upstream regulatory factors of pre-mRNA splicing is the scarcity of functional genomics screening methods to monitor splicing outcomes of endogenous genes. Here, we have developed HiFENS (high throughput FISH detection of endogenous splicing isoforms), a high-throughput imaging assay based on hybridization chain reaction (HCR) and used HiFENS to screen for cellular factors that regulate alternative splicing of endogenous genes. We demonstrate optimized detection with high specificity of endogenous splicing isoforms and multiplexing of probes for accurate detection of splicing outcomes with single cell resolution. As proof-of-principle, we perform an RNAi screen of 702 human kinases and identify potential candidate upstream splicing regulators of the FGFR2 gene. HiFENS should be a useful tool for the unbiased delineation of cellular pathways involved in alternative splicing regulation.