Abstract
Targeted genome engineering to robustly express transgenes is an essential methodology for stem cell-based research and therapy. Although designer nucleases have been used to drastically enhance gene editing efficiency, targeted addition and stable expression of transgenes to date is limited at single gene/locus and mostly PPP1R12C/AAVS1 in human stem cells. Here we constructed transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs) targeting the safe-harbor like gene CLYBL to mediate reporter gene integration at 38%-58% efficiency, and used both AAVS1-TALENs and CLYBL-TALENs to simultaneously knock-in multiple reporter genes at dual safe-harbor loci in human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and neural stem cells (NSCs). The CLYBL-TALEN engineered cell lines maintained robust reporter expression during self-renewal and differentiation, and revealed that CLYBL targeting resulted in stronger transgene expression and less perturbation on local gene expression than PPP1R12C/AAVS1. TALEN-mediated CLYBL engineering provides improved transgene expression and options for multiple genetic modification in human stem cells.