Institute for Basic
Science (IBS) and Seoul National University researchers developed
a gene editing tool than can precisely interchange
adenine (A) with guanine (G) within the mitochondrial genome. This
breakthrough, reported in the Cell journal,
has the potential to expand the range of mitochondrial mutations
that can help cure human genetic diseases.
�??We were able to create
a novel gene-editing platform called TALED that can achieve A-to-G
conversion. Our new base editor dramatically expanded the scope of
mitochondrial genome editing. This can make a big contribution not
only to making a disease model but also to developing a
treatment,�?� said first author Cho Sung-Ik. They developed TALED by
fusing three different components. The first one is a
transcription activator-like effector (Tale), which can target a
DNA sequence. The second one is called TadA8e, an adenine
deaminase that enables the A-to-G conversion. The third component,
DddAtox, is a cytosine deaminase that makes the DNA more
accessible to TadA8e.
New
TALED Gene Editing Technology Can Target Mitochondrial DNA
(thedailybeast.com)