A dominant dpy-10 co-transformation marker using CRISPR/Cas9 and a linear repair template in Caenorhabditis tropicalis

Caenorhabditis elegans is an excellent genetic model system with a large arsenal of forward and reverse genetic techniques. However, not all approaches are easily ported to related Caenorhabditis species (which are useful for gene conservation and gene pathway evolution studies). For CRISPR/Cas9 genetic editing, an easily screenable and dominant co-transformation marker is required – a secondary mutation that won’t impact the phenotype of a desired mutation but is capable of being screened for in heterozygous mutants. We describe here the adaptation of a dominant dumpy/roller CRISPR/Cas9-induced mutation in the C. tropicalis dpy-10 orthologue.