Conditional gene silencing via a CRISPR system in cerebellar Purkinje cells

Abstract

•Specific gene knockdown in cerebellar Purkinje cells is a major challenge because Purkinje cells only make up a small fraction of the cerebellum and off-target effects of shRNA occur.•Little is known about the application of CRISPR-Cas13 and the resulting protein expression levels in Purkinje cells, a type of developing postmitotic neuron.•We explored the possibility of a Cas13-mediated conditional knockdown system for cerebellar Purkinje cells. This system can achieve a suppression of the target proteins restricted to Purkinje cells in mixed cerebellar cultures.