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TALENs pp 9–25Cite as

TAL Effector DNA-Binding Principles and Specificity

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Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 1338))

Abstract

Transcription activator-like effectors (TALEs) are proteins with a unique DNA-binding domain that confers both a predictable and programmable specificity. The DNA-binding domain consists typically of 34-amino acid near-identical repeats. The repeats form a right-handed superhelical structure that wraps around the DNA double helix and exposes the variable amino acids at position 13 of each repeat to the sense strand DNA bases. Each repeat binds one base in a highly specific, non-overlapping, and comma-free fashion. Although TALE specificities are encoded in a simple way, sophisticated rules can be taken into account to build highly efficient DNA-binding modules for biotechnological use.

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Acknowledgements

We thank U. Bonas and T. Schreiber for discussion and comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by DFG grants BO 1496/6-1 and BO1496/7-1 to JB.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Genetics, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Weinbergweg 10, Halle (Saale), 06120, Germany

    Annekatrin Richter, Jana Streubel & Jens Boch

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  1. Annekatrin Richter
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  2. Jana Streubel
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  3. Jens Boch
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Correspondence to Jens Boch .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Max-Delbrück-Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin, Germany

    Ralf Kühn

  2. Institute of Developmental Genetics, Helmholtz Zentrum München, German Research Center for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, Germany

    Wolfgang Wurst

  3. Institute of Developmental Genetics, Helmholtz Zentrum München, German Research Center for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, Germany

    Benedikt Wefers

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Richter, A., Streubel, J., Boch, J. (2016). TAL Effector DNA-Binding Principles and Specificity. In: Kühn, R., Wurst, W., Wefers, B. (eds) TALENs. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1338. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2932-0_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2932-0_2

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