Chlamydomonas POLQ is necessary for CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene targeting.

The use of CRISPR/Cas endonucleases has revolutionized gene editing techniques for research on Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. To better utilize the CRISPR/Cas system, it is essential to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the DNA repair pathways involved in genome editing. In this study, we have analyzed contributions from canonical KU80/KU70-dependent non-homologous end-joining and polymerase theta (POLQ)-mediated end-joining on SpCas9-mediated untemplated mutagenesis and homology-directed repair/gene inactivation in Chlamydomonas. Using CRISPR/SpCas9 technology, we generated DNA repair-defective mutants ku80, ku70, polQ for gene targeting experiments. Our results show that untemplated repair of SpCas9-induced double strand breaks results in mutation spectra consistent with an involvement of both KU80/KU70 and POLQ. In addition, the inactivation of POLQ was found to negatively affect homology-directed repair of the inactivated paromomycin resistant mut-aphVIII gene when donor single-stranded oligos were used. Nevertheless, mut-aphVIII was still repaired by homologous recombination in these mutants. POLQ inactivation suppressed random integration of transgenes co-transformed with the donor ssDNA. KU80 deficiency did not affect these events but instead was surprisingly found to stimulate homology-directed repair/gene inactivation. Our data suggests that in Chlamydomonas, POLQ is the main contributor to CRISPR/Cas-induced homology-directed repair and random integration of transgenes, while KU80/KU70 potentially plays a secondary role. We expect our results will lead to improvement of genome editing in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and can be used for future development of algal biotechnology.