The teloHAEC genome sequence was used to design the gRNA library, with genetic variation in the editing window accounted for when appropriate. Alleles at non-A (or T) variants cannot be installed using the ABE
editing strategy. However, because other A’s may be present in the editing windows and bystander edits could provide useful information, all selected variants were targeted by the gRNA library, independent of the variant genotype in teloHAEC. With bedtools and the teloHAEC genome sequence, the genomic sequence around the targeted variants was retrieved, and five 20-bp gRNAs were designed for each variant, shifting the variant targeted for editing from position #4 in the editing window (gRNA1) to position #5 (gRNA2), #6 (gRNA3), #7 (gRNA4), and #8 (gRNA5). After this initial design, the gRNA sequences were re-aligned to the teloHAEC genome to account for other nearby genetic variants (i.e., variants not associated with BP or CAD but residing near the targeted variants). When appropriate, these variants were introduced into the gRNA sequences to minimize mismatches.
The strategy developed by Ryu et al. (PMID: 38658794) was adopted, adding a reporter sequence for each gRNA. This reporter includes the same 20 nucleotides as the gRNA and is used to measure editing efficiency. In total, 9387 gRNAs were designed to target 1271 variants. Additionally, 111 non-targeting gRNAs and 111 safe gRNAs were added as negative controls, as well as in 257 essential genes. Each gRNA in the final library was assigned a unique 7-nucleotide barcode to enable precise identification during downstream analyses, ensuring that these barcodes did not contain repetitive sequences (e.g., AAAA, TTTT, CCCC, GGGG). To increase signal sensitivity, a total of 9,387 gRNAs were randomly distributed into two pooled library sets.