CRISPR-mediated knock-in in the mouse embryo using long single stranded DNA donors synthesised by biotinylated PCR

Successful gene knock-in by CRISPR-Cas9 in the mouse zygote requires three components; guideRNA, Cas9 protein and a suitable donor template, which usually comprises homology flanked insert sequence. Recently, long single stranded DNA (lssDNA) donors have emerged as a popular choice of DNA donor, outperforming dsDNA templates in terms of knock-in efficiency for gene tagging and generating conditional alleles. The generation of these donors can be achieved through several methods that may introduce errors in the sequence, result in poor yields, and contain dsDNA contamination. We have developed our own cost-effective lssDNA synthesis methodology that results in high purity, sequence verified, low contamination lssDNA donors. We provide a detailed methodology on the design and generation of such donors for gene tagging experiments and generating conditional alleles.