PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Jessica M. Ong AU - Christopher R. Brown AU - Matthew C. Mendel AU - Gregory J. Cost TI - The WPRE improves genetic engineering with site-specific nucleases AID - 10.1101/126904 DP - 2017 Jan 01 TA - bioRxiv PG - 126904 4099 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/04/12/126904.short 4100 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/04/12/126904.full AB - Abstract Inclusion of the woodchuck hepatitis virus post-transcriptional response element (WPRE) in the 3’ UTR of mRNA encoding zinc-finger or TALE nucleases results in up to a fifty-fold increase in nuclease expression and a several-fold increase in nuclease-modified chromosomes. Significantly, this increase is additive with the enhancement generated by transient hypothermic shock. The WPRE-mediated improvement is seen across several types of human and mouse primary and transformed cells and is translatable in vivo to the mouse liver.