2015. Kwang-il Lim. "Recent advances in developing molecular tools for targeted genome engineer

Various biological molecules naturally existing in diversified species including fungi, bacteria, and bacteriophage have functionalities for DNA binding and processing. Those biological molecules have been recently actively engineered to be used for customized genome editing of mammalian cells as the molecule-encoding DNA sequence information and the underlying mechanisms how the molecules work are unveiled. Excitingly, multiple novel methods based on the newly constructed artificial molecular tools have enabled the modifications of specific endogenous genetic elements in the context of genome at efficiency much higher than that of the conventional homologous recombination based methods. This minireview introduces the most recently spotlighted molecular genome engineering tools with their key features and ongoing modifications for better performance. Such ongoing efforts have been mainly focused on the removal of the inherent DNA sequence recognition rigidity from the original molecular platforms, the addition of newly tailored targeting functions into the engineered molecules, and the enhancement of their targeting specificity. Effective targeted genome engineering of mammalian cells will enable not only sophisticated genetic studies in the context of genome but also widely applicable universal therapeutics based on the pinpointing and correction of the disease-causing genetic elements on genome in the near future.

PMID: 25104401 PMCID: PMC4345644EndFragment

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