title: Plant genome editing by novel tools: TALEN and other sequence specific nucleases.
abstract: Genome editing technologies using sequence specific nucleases (SSNs) became a tremendously powerful and precise tool for reverse genetic approaches and applied biology. Transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs) in particular, consisting of a free designable DNA binding domain and a nuclease, have been exploited today by a huge number of approaches in many different organisms. The convenience of designing the DNA binding domain and straightforward protocols for their assembly, as well as the broad number of applications in different scientific fields made it Natures method of the year 2011. TALENs act as molecular scissors by introducing double strand breaks (DSBs) to the DNA at a given location. The DSBs are subsequently repaired by the cell itself using different repair pathways such as non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) or homologous recombination (HR). These mechanisms can lead to deletions, insertions, replacements or larger chromosomal rearrangements. By offering a template DNA it is possible to channel the repair in direction of HR. In this article we review the recent findings in the field of SSN approaches with emphasis on plants.
authors.affiliation: Julius Kühn Institut, Institute for Biosafety in Plant Biotechnology, Erwin Baur-Str. 27, 06484 Quedlinburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Thorben
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sprink
authors.affiliation: Max Plank Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Research Group Autophagy, Am Fassberg 11, 37077 Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Janina
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Metje
authors.affiliation: Julius Kühn Institut, Institute for Biosafety in Plant Biotechnology, Erwin Baur-Str. 27, 06484 Quedlinburg, Germany. Electronic address: Frank.Hartung@jki.bund.de.
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Hartung
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D004720:Endonucleases / Q000378:metabolism; D005818:Genetic Engineering / Q000379:methods; D018745:Genome, Plant; D059765:Homologous Recombination; D006801:Humans; D010944:Plants / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D004720:Endonucleases