Non-coding DNA in the human genome is widely studied to investigate its effect on coding DNA and gene expression. Non-coding DNA contains cis-regulatory elements that influence transcription of genes upstream, downstream, or nearby. These regulatory elements have largely been studied as enhancers that promote the transcription of genes. To explore these regulatory elements as silencers, we chose validated bifunctional elements to study their silencing capability and their chromatin markers. We used chromatin immunoprecipitation methods with dCas9 to target these elements using single-guide RNAs (sgRNAs). We experimented with various cloning methods to insert dCas9 into the pUAS vector. We initially planned to use the Gibson Assembly method, but after no success, we tried site-directed mutagenesis and traditional cloning with restriction enzymes. We were able to successfully insert dCas9 into the pUAS vector with traditional cloning, and we were then able to inject the construct into Drosophila melanogaster. We designed sgRNAs to target desired elements of DNA that we chose to study as cis-regulatory elements. The sgRNA sequences were cloned into the pCFD5 vector and injected into another line of flies. The transgenic flies containing the pUAS/dCas9 plasmid will then be crossed with the flies containing the pCFD5/sgRNA to develop offspring that express the target elements and could undergo chromatin pulldown to examine the bifunctional regulation of these DNA elements in cells. Results from a quantitative PCR (qPCR) assay on Drosophila expressing the cloned pUAS vector with dCas9 and a sgRNA for the white gene showed chromatin pulldown efficiency and successful transfection. The Drosophila chromatin targeted by the sgRNAs will be pulled down, solubilized, and then analyzed on a western blot to screen for chromatin modifications, primarily histone modifications. We can then identify chromatin markers associated with elements when they act as silencers in the mesoderm versus when they act as non- mesodermal enhancers. We can also determine if the silencer acts by interacting with a promoter or with an enhancer to repress gene expression. If ENCODE can profile the data found in this project, the chromatin markers can act as a predictive tool for the identification of silencers.

Le système baculovirus / cellules d’insectes est un outil performant pour la production de vecteurs AAV recombinant pour la thérapie génique. Cette production nécessite que, les gènes rep et cap de l’AAV ainsi que le transgène encadré par les ITR, soient codés dans le génome du baculovirus AcMNPV. L’utilisation de cassettes de recombinaison pour intégrer ces gènes provoque à grande échelle une certaine instabilité au sein des 134Kb du génome. Pour pallier à ce phénomène, une nouvelle stratégie d’intégration de gènes a été mise en place. Celle-ci doit permettre notamment d’éviter la présence de cicatrices de recombinaison et de modifier le génome du bacmid d’AcMNPV. Basée sur la technique de Gibson Assembly, nous avons tenté d’assembler de novo le génome du baculovirus d’AcMNPV à partir de fragments PCR chevauchants. Nous avons réussi à pré assembler en 4 parties la totalité du génome. Celles-ci ont permis d’insérer le gène de la GFP comme gène d’intérêt mais également d’éliminer le gène de résistance antibiotique et le Mini-F réplicon, facteur d’instabilité en cellules d’insecte. Plusieurs clones obtenus ne contiennent aucune mutation. Cette technique pourrait être appliquée à la production de vecteurs AAVr. / The baculovirus / insect cell system allows AAV vector production for gene therapy purposes. Current baculoviruses used for the production of rAAV vectors are a bottleneck for Scaling up production. Indeed the use of recombination boxes to insert the genes brings instability to the134kb genome. To avoid this, a new gene integration strategy has been implemented. In this work, we have assayed the full assembly of AcMNPV´s genome using the Gibson Assembly technic. PCR fragments covering the totality of genome and able to assemble through overlapping terminal regions have been pre-assembled in 4 segments. The finally assembly should contain the eGFP gene used has gene of interest along with replacement of the Mini-F replicon by polyhedrin gene. This feasibility study has shown that we could obtain segments without any mutation. Final assembly is still on-going. This technology should be applied next for the generation of baculovirus used for the production of rAAV vectors. This marker less combination method should solve problems of genome instability.

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This thesis report revolved around the cloning process of plasmids. Attempts of cloning the red fluorescent protein mCherry, and the green fluorescent protein EGFP from various plasmids, into other plasmids containing different cell-junction/cytoskeleton plasmids were made. These plasmids were first amplified using PCR, and then cloned using Gibson-Assembly, and then transfected into live HEK293T or MDCK-II cells. After the transfection, the cells were examined in a microscope. The results showed no signal or localization for the cloned plasmids in their respective corresponding channel, 561 nm for the red fluorescent protein mCherry or 488 nm for the green fluorescent protein EGFP. The step that went wrong was the PCR step in the cloning process, since the backbone vector was not successfully amplified. The reasons for this was either that the backbone vector was too long, the primers regions were to rich with Guanine and Cytoseine, or the primers being too long. / Den här tesen kretsade kring kloningsprocessen för plasmider. Det gjordes försök att från plasmider klona in det röda fluorescerande proteinet mCherry, samt det gröna fluorescerande proteinet EGFP in i andra plasmider som innehöll olika cell-junction proteiner. Både det fluorescerande fragmenten och plasmid-vektorerna innehållande cell-junction proteinerna amplifierades med PCR. Sedan gjordes Gibson-Assembly som var själva kloningsmetoden. Efter det transfekterades HEK293T, samt MDCK-II celler med lösningen från Gibson-Assembly kloningen. Dessa celler undersöktes sedan i mikroskop. Resultatet visade inga tydliga signaler varken i 561 nm kanalen (mCherry), eller i 488 nm kanalen (EGFP), vilket betyder att kloningen inte fungerade. Steget som gick fel var PCR-steget i själva kloningsprocessen, då plasmid-vektorerna inte amplifierades. Anledningen till detta var antingen att själva plasmid-vektorerna var för långa, primer regionerna hade för mycket Guanin och Cytosin, eller att alla primers själva var för långa.