CRISPR-Cas9-based mutagenesis frequently provokes on-target mRNA misregulation

The introduction of insertion-deletions (INDELs) by non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ) pathway underlies the mechanistic basis of CRISPR-Cas9-directed genome editing. Selective gene ablation using CRISPR-Cas9 is achieved by installation of a premature termination codon (PTC) from a frameshift-inducing INDEL that elicits nonsense-mediated decay (NMD) of the mutant mRNA. Here, by examining the mRNA and protein products of CRISPR targeted genes in a...