Guy-Franck Richard

DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) represent critical events in genome integrity, arising from both endogenous cellular processes and exogenous factors. These breaks are implicated in various genomic aberrations and chromosomal rearrangements, leading to cancers and genetic disorders. Common and rare fragile sites, containing repetitive elements and non-B DNA structures, are particularly prone to breakage under replication stress, which play a pivotal role in cancer development and genetic diseases. Accurate quantification of DNA breaks in the context of repetitive sequences such as microsatellites or non-B DNA structures is technically challenging. We have been comparing four different methods to reliably quantify DSBs in repetitive DNA, namely Southern blot, DSB-PCR, real-time DSB-qPCR, and digital PCR (dPCR). We show here that dPCR offers enhanced sensitivity and specificity compared to other methods. This provides significant applications for future disease diagnosis, understanding molecular mechanisms generating chromosomal breakage and for the development of gene therapies for microsatellite expansion disorders.

There are over fifty microsatellite expansion disorders, often neurodegenerative pathologies, due to large expansions of tandem repeat sequences. These microsatellites vary in motif composition, size and copy number in the genome. The ability of these repeats to form secondary structures in vitro is strongly suspected to trigger the expansion process and therefore, the pathology. However, there is no formal proof that similar structures are formed in vivo , in living and replicating cells. We are focused on the CTG trinucleotide repeat whose expansion is responsible for myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1 or Steinert disease), affecting 1 in 8,000 people worldwide. A series of llama nanobodies (V _H H) were selected to bind to the secondary structure formed by a synthetic imperfect CTG hairpin. Yeast one-hybrid was used to identify V _H H that were able to activate a reporter gene in vivo . One of them was shown to be very specific since it binds a CTG hairpin but not a CAG hairpin or a GC-rich sequence. This nanobody also bind to long CTG trinucleotide repeats carried by plasmidic or genomic DNAs, proportionally to the number of repeats, suggesting that longer repeats tend to form more frequently imperfect hairpins. Finally, the V _H H was bound to a protein G column and used to selectively enrich structure-containing DNA molecules, that were further observed by electron microscopy. They exhibit different kinds of structures in which only one strand is folded into an imperfect hairpin. Our results unambiguously show that alternative DNA structures are transiently formed by CTG trinucleotide repeats in living bacterial and yeast cells and suggest that imperfect CTG hairpins mainly exist in vivo mainly as heteroduplex DNA molecules.

Trinucleotide repeat expansions are the cause of two dozen neurodegenerative and developmental disorders. One of these, myotonic dystrophy type 1 (Steinert disease, or DM1) is due to the expansion of a CTG triplet in the 3’ UTR of the DMPK gene. We used highly specific DNA endonucleases to induce a double-strand break in the repeat tract to contract it below pathological length. Expression of a TALE Nuclease (TALEN) in human DM1 cells induced moderate CTG repeat contractions in 27% of the clones analyzed. These clones exhibited large internal deletions within the TALEN, occurring by homologous recombination between internal TALE repeats, inactivating the nuclease, and explaining its reduced efficacy. Taking advantage of the degeneracy of the genetic code, we recoded the TALEN sequence, to decrease internal redundancy and optimize codon usage. The new recoded TALEN showed increased efficacy in DM1 cells, with 68% of clones exhibiting a moderate to large contraction of the CTG repeat tract. In contrast, Staphylococcus aureus Cas9 ( Sa Cas9) was unable to contract the CTG repeat tract. In parallel, we completely sequenced to very high coverage the DM1 genome using the PacBio technology. Several clones in which the TALEN was induced were also totally sequenced. In some of them, length changes of other long CTG repeats were detected, possibly corresponding to off-target effects, all of them in introns or intergenic regions. Repeat contractions were never associated with recombination of flanking markers, suggesting that contractions most probably occur by an intra-allelic mechanism such as single-strand annealing. TALENs should now be considered as a promising gene therapy approach, not only for DM1 but also for many other microsatellite expansion disorders.

Background: Double-strand break repair (DSBR) is a highly regulated process involving dozens of proteins acting in a defined order to repair a DNA lesion that is fatal for any living cell. Model organisms such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae have been used to study the mechanisms underlying DSBR, including factors influencing its efficiency such as the presence of distinct combinations of microsatellites and endonucleases, mainly by bulk analysis of millions of cells undergoing repair of a broken chromosome. Here, we use a microfluidic device to demonstrate in yeast that DSBR may be studied at a single-cell level in a time-resolved manner, on a large number of independent lineages undergoing repair. Results: We used engineered S. cerevisiae cells in which GFP is expressed following the successful repair of a DSB induced by Cas9 or Cpf1 endonucleases, and different genetic backgrounds were screened to detect key events leading to the DSBR efficiency. Per condition, the progenies of 80–150 individual cells were analyzed over 24 h. The observed DSBR dynamics, which revealed heterogeneity of individual cell fates and their contributions to global repair efficacy, was confronted with a coupled differential equation model to obtain repair process rates. Good agreement was found between the mathematical model and experimental results at different scales, and quantitative comparisons of the different experimental conditions with image analysis of cell shape enabled the identification of three types of DSB repair events previously not recognized: high-efficacy error-free, low-efficacy error-free, and low-efficacy error-prone repair. Conclusions: Our analysis paves the way to a significant advance in understanding the complex molecular mechanism of DSB repair, with potential implications beyond yeast cell biology. This multiscale and multidisciplinary approach more generally allows unique insights into the relation between in vivo microscopic processes within each cell and their impact on the population dynamics, which were inaccessible by previous approaches using molecular genetics tools alone.

Trinucleotide repeat expansions are responsible for two dozen human disorders. Contracting expanded repeats by Double-Strand Break Repair (DSBR) might be a therapeutic approach. Given the complexity of manipulating human cells, recent assays were made to quantify DSBR efficacy in yeast, using a fluorescent reporter. In this study DSBR is characterized with an interdisciplinary approach, linking large population dynamics and individual cells. Time-resolved molecular measurements of changes in the population are first confronted to a coupled differential equation model to obtain repair processes rates. Comparisons with measurements in microfluidic devices, where the progeny of 80-150 individual cells are followed, show good agreement between individual trajectories and mathematical and molecular results. Further analysis of individual progenies shows the heterogeneity of individual cell contributions to global repair efficacy. Three different categories of repair are identified: high-efficacy error-free, low-efficacy error-free and low-efficacy error-prone. These categories depend on the type of endonuclease used and on the target sequence.

Megasatellites are large tandem repeats found in all fungal genomes but especially abundant in the opportunistic pathogen Candida glabrata. They are encoded in genes involved in cell–cell interactions, either between yeasts or between yeast and human cells. In the present work, we have been using an iterative genetic system to delete several Candida glabrata megasatellite-containing genes and found that 2 of them were positively involved in adhesion to epithelial cells, whereas 3 genes negatively controlled adhesion. Two of the latter, CAGL0B05061g or CAGL0A04851g, were also negative regulators of yeast-to-yeast adhesion, making them central players in controlling Candida glabrata adherence properties. Using a series of synthetic Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains in which the FLO1 megasatellite was replaced by other tandem repeats of similar length but different sequences, we showed that the capacity of a strain to flocculate in liquid culture was unrelated to its capacity to adhere to epithelial cells or to invade agar. Finally, to understand how megasatellites were initially created and subsequently expanded, an experimental evolution system was set up, in which modified yeast strains containing different megasatellite seeds were grown in bioreactors for more than 200 generations and selected for their ability to sediment at the bottom of the culture tube. Several flocculation-positive mutants were isolated. Functionally relevant mutations included general transcription factors as well as a 230-kbp segmental duplication.

Megasatellites are large tandem repeats found in all fungal genomes but especially abundant in the opportunistic pathogen Candida glabrata . They are encoded in genes involved in cell-cell interactions, either between yeasts or between yeast and human cells. In the present work, we have been using an iterative genetic system to delete several C. glabrata megasatellite-containing genes and found that two of them were positively involved in adhesion to epithelial cells, whereas three genes controlled negatively adhesion. Two of the latter, CAGL0B05061g or CAGL0A04851g, are also negative regulators of yeast-to-yeast adhesion, making them central players in controlling C. glabrata adherence properties. Using a series of synthetic Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains in which the FLO1 megasatellite was replaced by other tandem repeats of similar length but different sequences, we showed that the capacity of a strain to flocculate in liquid culture was unrelated to its capacity to adhere to epithelial cells or to invade agar. Finally, in order to understand how megasatellites were initially created and subsequently expanded, an experimental evolution system was set up, in which modified yeast strains containing different megasatellite seeds were grown in bioreactors for more than 200 generations and selected for their ability to sediment at the bottom of the culture tube. Several flocculation-positive mutants were isolated. Functionally relevant mutations included general transcription factors as well as a 230 kb segmental duplication.

Since the formation of the first proto-eukaryotes, more than 1.5 billion years ago, eukaryotic gene repertoire as well as genome complexity has significantly increased. Among genetic elements that are responsible for this increase in genome coding capacity and plasticity are tandem repeats such as microsatellites, minisatellites and their bigger brothers, megasatellites. Although microsatellites have been thoroughly studied in many organisms for the last 20 years, little is known about the distribution and evolution of mini- and megasatellites. Here, we describe the first genome-wide analysis of megasatellites in 58 vertebrate genomes, belonging to 12 monophyletic groups. We show that two bursts of megasatellite formation occurred, one after the radiation between agnatha et gnathostomata fishes and the second one later, in therian mammals. Megasatellites are frequently encoded in genes involved in transcription regulation (zinc-finger proteins) and intracellular trafficking, but also in cell membrane metabolism, reminiscent of what was observed in fungi genomes. The presence of many introns within young megasatellites suggests a model in which an exon-intron DNA segment is first duplicated and amplified before the accumulation of mutations in intronic parts partially erase the tandem repeat in such a way that it becomes detectable only in exonic regions. In addition, evidence for the genetic transfer of megasatellites between unrelated genes suggests that megasatellite formation and evolution is a very dynamic and still ongoing process in vertebrate genomes.

Microsatellite expansions are the cause of >20 neurological or developmental human disorders. Shortening expanded repeats using specific DNA endonucleases may be envisioned as a gene editing approach. Here, we measured the efficacy of several CRISPR–Cas nucleases to induce recombination within disease-related microsatellites, in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Broad variations in nuclease performances were detected on all repeat tracts. Wild-type Streptococcus pyogenes Cas9 (SpCas9) was more efficient than Staphylococcus aureus Cas9 on all repeats tested, except (CAG)₃₃. Cas12a (Cpf1) was the most efficient on GAA trinucleotide repeats, whereas GC-rich repeats were more efficiently cut by SpCas9. The main genetic factor underlying Cas efficacy was the propensity of the recognition part of the sgRNA to form a stable secondary structure, independently of its structural part. This suggests that such structures form in vivo and interfere with sgRNA metabolism. The yeast genome contains 221 natural CAG/CTG and GAA/CTT trinucleotide repeats. Deep sequencing after nuclease induction identified three of them as carrying statistically significant low frequency mutations, corresponding to SpCas9 off-target double-strand breaks.