A CRISPR-strategy for the generation of a detectable fluorescent hESC reporter line (WAe009-A-37) for the subpallial determinant GSX2.

GSX2 is a homeobox transcription factor (TF) controlling the specification of the ventral lateral ganglionic eminence and its major derivative, the corpus striatum. Medium spiny neurons (MSNs) represent the largest cell component of the striatum and they are primarily affected in Huntington disease (HD). Here, we used CRISPR technology to generate a pluripotent GSX2-reporter human embryonic stem cell (hESC) line that can be leveraged to monitor striatal differentiation in real-time and to enrich for MSN-committed progenitors.