Abstract
The development of a facile genome engineering technology based on transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs) has led to significant advances in diverse areas of science and medicine. In this review, we provide a broad overview of the development of TALENs and the use of this technology in basic science, biotechnology, and biomedical applications. This includes the discovery of DNA recognition by TALEs, engineering new TALE proteins to diverse targets, general advances in nuclease-based editing strategies, and challenges that are specific to various applications of the TALEN technology. We review examples of applying TALENs for studying gene function and regulation, generating disease models, and developing gene therapies. The current status of genome editing and future directions for other uses of these technologies are also discussed.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by a US National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director’s New Innovator Award (DP2OD008586), National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award (CBET-1151035), NIH R01DA036865, NIH R21AR065956, NIH UH3TR000505, NIH P30AR066527, the Duke Coulter Translational Partnership, and an American Heart Association Scientist Development Grant (10SDG3060033). D.G.O. was supported by an American Heart Association Mid-Atlantic Affiliate Predoctoral Fellowship.
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Ousterout, D.G., Gersbach, C.A. (2016). The Development of TALE Nucleases for Biotechnology. 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_3
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