Recent single cell transcriptomic profiling of the human retina provided important insights into the genetic signals in heterogeneous retinal cell populations that enable vision. However, conventional single cell RNAseq with 3' short-read sequencing is not suitable to identify isoform variants. Here we utilized Iso-Seq with full-length sequencing to profile the human retina at single cell resolution for isoform discovery. We generated a retina transcriptome dataset consisting of 25,302 nuclei from three donor retina, and detected 49,710 known transcripts and 241,949 novel transcripts across major retinal cell types. We surveyed the use of alternative promoters to drive transcript variant expression, and showed that 1-8% of genes utilized multiple promoters across major retinal cell types. Also, our results enabled gene expression profiling of novel transcript variants for inherited retinal disease (IRD) genes, and identified differential usage of exon splicing in major retinal cell types. Altogether, we generated a human retina transcriptome dataset at single cell resolution with full-length sequencing. Our study highlighted the potential of Iso-Seq to map the isoform diversity in the human retina, providing an expanded view of the complex transcriptomic landscape in the retina. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.
Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy of using a CRISPR/Cas-mediated strategy to correct a common high-risk allele that is associated with age-related macular degeneration (AMD; rs1061170; NM_000186.3:c.1204T>C; NP_ 000177.2:p. His402Tyr) in the complement factor H (CFH) gene. Methods: A human embryonic kidney cell line (HEK293A) was engineered to contain the pathogenic risk variant for AMD (HEK293A-CFH). Several different base editor constructs (BE3, SaBE3, SaKKH-BE3, VQR-BE3, and TargetAID) and their respective single-guide RNA (sgRNA) expression cassettes targeting either the pathogenic risk variant allele in the CFH locus or the LacZ gene, as a negative control, were evaluated head-to-head for the incidence of a cytosine-to-thymine nucleotide correction. The base editor construct that showed appreciable editing activity was selected for further assessment in which the base-edited region was subjected to next-generation deep sequencing to quantify on-target and off-target editing efficacy. Results: The tandem use of the Target-AID base editor and its respective sgRNA demonstrated a base editing efficiency of facilitating a cytosine-to-thymine nucleotide correction in 21.5% of the total sequencing reads. Additionally, the incidence of insertions and deletions (indels) was detected in only 0.15% of the sequencing reads with virtually no off-target effects evident across the top 11 predicted off-target sites containing at least one cytosine in the activity window (n = 3, pooled amplicons). Conclusions: CRISPR-mediated base editing can be used to facilitate a permanent and stably inherited cytosine-tothymine nucleotide correction of the rs1061170 SNP in the CFH gene with minimal off-target effects.