"Using the TAL effectors to remove DNA will likely challenge anti-GMO opponents. However, since many are also anti-technology, it’s unlikely they will embrace this methodology either." [Zebrafish. 2011]
Genome editing appears poised to enter an exciting new era. Targeted double-stranded breaks due to custom restriction enzymes are powerful nucleating events for the induction of local changes in the genome. The zinc finger nuclease (ZFN) platform established the potential of this approach for the zebrafish, but access to high quality reagents has been a major bottleneck for the field. However, two groups recently report successful somatic and germline gene modification using a new nuclease architecture, transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs). TALEN construction is simpler, potentially more reliable, and in the few cases examined, shows fewer off-target effects than corresponding ZFNs. TALENs promise to bring gene targeting to the majority of zebrafish laboratories. Friedreichs ataxia inherited disease (GAA repeat length polymorphism leading to inefficient splicing) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedreich%27s_ataxia
Genes coding for Tal effector (TALE) proteins may be engineered to target specific DNA sequences. TALEs are fused with a transcription activator can be used to specifically induce the expression of a gene. This could lead to completely new therapies for several diseases. We have applied this potential therapeutic approach to Friedreich ataxia (FRDA) as an example. FRDA is due to a reduced expression of frataxin following an elongation of a trinucleotide (GAA) repeat in intron 1. Aim: To develop a potential treatment for FRDA by increasing the expression of the frataxin gene. Results: We have engineered 12 TALE genes (TALEFrat) coding for TALEFrat proteins each specifically targeting different 14 bp DNA sequences within the proximal region of the human frataxin promoter. When the genes of these TALEFrat were fused with a transcription activator, i.e., four VP16 peptides (i.e., VP64), the resulting TALEFrat-VP64 proteins induced the expression of a mCherry reporter gene fused to a mini-CMV promoter able to be activated by the insertion of the frataxin proximal promoter upstream to the mini promoter. These TALEFrat-VP64 also increased by 2 to 3 folds the frataxin gene expression (detected by qRT-PCR) in the cells. Conclusion: TALEFrat proteins targeting the frataxin promoter are thus a method to increase the expression of frataxin mRNA and potentially could alleviate the symptoms of Friedreich ataxia. This new methodology of TALE effector opens a new field, which could be used to develop TALE proteins to treat other diseases by inducing the expression of specific genes. contains a TAL effector: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/protein/CCG39214.1
The 5.1-Mb genome sequence of Xanthomonas citri pv. mangiferaeindicae strain LMG 941, the causal agent of bacterial black spot in mango. Apart from evolutionary studies, the draft genome will be a valuable resource for the epidemiological studies and quarantine of this phytopathogen. Site-specific and adaptable DNA binding domains are essential modules to develop genome engineering technologies for crop improvement. Transcription activator-like effectors (TALEs)
Targeted manipulation of complex genomes often requires the introduction of a double-strand break at defined locations by site-specific DNA endonucleases. Here, we describe a monomeric nuclease domain derived from GIY-YIG homing endonucleases for genome-editing applications. Fusion of the GIY-YIG nuclease domain to three-member zinc-finger DNA binding domains generated chimeric GIY-zinc finger endonucleases (GIY-ZFEs). Significantly, the I-TevI-derived fusions (Tev-ZFEs) function in vitro as monomers to introduce a double-strand break, and discriminate in vitro and in bacterial and yeast assays against substrates lacking a preferred 5'-CNNNG-3' cleavage motif. The Tev-ZFEs function to induce recombination in a yeast-based assay with activity on par with a homodimeric Zif268 zinc-finger nuclease. We also fused the I-TevI nuclease domain to a catalytically inactive LADGLIDADG homing endonuclease (LHE) scaffold. The monomeric Tev-LHEs are active in vivo and similarly discriminate against substrates lacking the 5'-CNNNG-3' motif. The monomeric Tev-ZFEs and Tev-LHEs are distinct from the FokI-derived zinc-finger nuclease and TAL effector nuclease platforms as the GIY-YIG domain alleviates the requirement to design two nuclease fusions to target a given sequence, highlighting the diversity of nuclease domains with distinctive biochemical properties suitable for genome-editing applications.
EVANSTON, Ill., May 1, 2012 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- The Two Blades Foundation (2Blades) announced today the completion of a non-exclusive license agreement with Bayer CropScience AG for access to the TAL Code technology for commercial uses in certain crop plants. 
Tzfira et al, 2012 Genome editing, i.e. the ability to mutagenize, insert, delete and replace sequences, in living cells is a powerful and highly desirable method that could potentially revolutionize plant basic research and applied biotechnology. Indeed, various research groups from academia and industry are in a race to devise methods and develop tools that will enable not only site-specific mutagenesis but also controlled foreign DNA integration and replacement of native and transgene sequences by foreign DNA, in living plant cells.... In this review, we discuss the principles and tools for restriction enzyme-mediated gene targeting in plant cells, as well as their current and prospective use for gene targeting in model and crop plants. 
Bultmann et al (2012) Specific control of gene activity is a valuable tool to study and engineer cellular functions. Recent studies uncovered the potential of transcription activator-like effector (TALE) proteins that can be tailored to activate user-defined target genes. It remains however unclear whether and how epigenetic modifications interfere with TALE-mediated transcriptional activation. We studied the activity of five designer TALEs (dTALEs) targeting the oct4 pluripotency gene. In vitro assays showed that the five dTALEs that target distinct sites in the oct4 promoter had the expected DNA specificity and comparable affinities to their corresponding DNA targets. In contrast to their similar in vitro properties, transcriptional activation of oct4 by these distinct dTALEs varied up to 25-fold. While dTALEs efficiently upregulated transcription of the active oct4 promoter in embryonic stem cells (ESCs) they failed to activate the silenced oct4 promoter in ESC-derived neural stem cells (NSCs), indicating that as for endogenous transcription factors also dTALE activity is limited by repressive epigenetic mechanisms. We therefore targeted the activity of epigenetic modulators and found that chemical inhibition of histone deacetylases by valproic acid or DNA methyltransferases by 5-aza-2′-deoxycytidine facilitated dTALE-mediated activation of the epigenetically silenced oct4 promoter in NSCs. Notably, demethylation of the oct4 promoter occurred only if chemical inhibitors and dTALEs were applied together but not upon treatment with inhibitors or dTALEs only. These results show that dTALEs in combination with chemical manipulation of epigenetic modifiers facilitate targeted transcriptional activation of epigenetically silenced target genes. FLASH is an automatable high-throughput method for assembling DNA encoding TAL effector repeat arrays recently developed by the Joung lab (Reyon & Tsai et al., Nat Biotechnol. 2012). With automated FLASH, DNA fragments encoding 96 variable-length TAL effector repeat arrays can be assembled in one day. When practiced manually with a multi-channel pipet, FLASH can also be used by a single researcher to make DNA fragments encoding 12 to 24 variable-length TAL effector repeat arrays in one to two days. TAL effector repeat arrays assembled by FLASH are identical in DNA sequence to those assembled by the REAL and REAL-Fast methods.
idTALE is a web-based tool developed to facilitate TALEN design and target finding in the genomes of several model species. idTALE helps in TALEN design as well as to search for its targets in the genomes of multiple model organisms. 
“What this technology allows you to do is to make direct edits to the genome,” said Reed Hickey, Life Technologies’ product manager. Data gathered by the company have proved its effectiveness with fungi, algae and a variety of other biomass forms. “What this allows you to do is turn on a whole pathway, [for example to] increase the expression of lipid production in a specific strain of algae, or change the way photosynthesis is performed so you can support photosynthetic pathways from other strains and engineer a plant to do exactly what you need it to do to improve the energy capture for biofuels.” 
GeneArt® Precision TALs provide custom DNA binding proteins for accurate DNA targeting and precise genome editing. |
"This post on Biofortified asks for this breeding technology to be distinguished from transgenics – the technology that produces GMOs (or GM crops). Somehow I think this is wishful thinking because the genome has been modified and as the issue of GMO is more about values than the science, I suspect the same values that cause people to reject GMOs will be applied to the (TAL) effector technology. It will still be considered unnatural, and if it is as effective as predicted big companies will use it to their advantage. They will still questions its safety and potential effect on the environment….and so on" 
Instead of adding a sentence or two to the genome book, as is done by standard genetic modification (GM) approaches, they removed a few letters; the rice varieties they generated lack anywhere from 3 to 57 bases in their genomes. Thus, the rice plants generated by Li et al. do not
contain extraneous DNA and cannot by any reasonable definition be considered “GMOs.” 
The ability to engineer biological circuits that process and respond to complex cellular signals has the potential to impact many areas of biology and medicine. Transcriptional activator-like effectors (TALEs) have emerged as an attractive component for engineering these circuits, as TALEs can be designed de novo to target a given DNA sequence. Currently, however, the use of TALEs is limited by degeneracy in the site-specific manner by which they recognize DNA. Here, we propose an algorithm to computationally address this problem. We apply our algorithm to design 180 TALEs targeting 20 bp cognate binding sites that are at least 3 nt mismatches away from all 20 bp sequences in putative 2 kb human promoter regions. We generated eight of these synthetic TALE activators and showed that each is able to activate transcription from a targeted reporter. Importantly, we show that these proteins do not activate synthetic reporters containing mismatches similar to those present in the genome nor a set of endogenous genes predicted to be the most likely targets in vivo. Finally, we generated and characterized TALE repressors comprised of our orthogonal DNA binding domains and further combined them with shRNAs to accomplish near complete repression of target gene expression.
...The described technique complies with mutagenesis in terms of § 3 No. 3b GenTG. According to these terms mutagenesis is not a procedure resulting in genetic modification. Thus, the ZKBS does not regard the resulting organisms as organisms modified by gene technology.... A discussion that followed the landmark publication of Nature Biotechnology paper describing a disease resistant rice strain that was deleted for some DNA using TALEN technology
High-efficiency TALEN-based gene editing produces disease-resistant rice
http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v30/n5/full/nbt.2199.html?WT.ec_id=NBT-201205
from the Yang lab.
Transcription activator–like (TAL) effectors of Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) contribute to pathogen virulence by transcriptionally activating specific rice disease-susceptibility (S) genes. TAL effector nucleases (TALENs)—fusion proteins derived from the DNA recognition repeats of native or customized TAL effectors and the DNA cleavage domains of FokI—have been used to create site-specific gene modifications in plant cells, yeast, animals and even human pluripotent cells. Here, we exploit TALEN technology to edit a specific S gene in rice to thwart the virulence strategy of X. oryzae and thereby engineer heritable genome modifications for resistance to bacterial blight, a devastating disease in a crop that feeds half of the world's population.
Genome engineering (GE), an emerging discipline in which a DNA sequence is altered at a single position, has a wide variety of potential uses, such as the correction of gene sequences in patients suffering from genetic diseases, the modification or insertion of genes in plants, and the generation of unique cell lines for treatment of diseases such as cancer. GE requires the development of molecular tools that can search out and bind to one unique site within a complex genome while avoiding 'off target' interactions across the remaining billions of DNA bases present in a cell’s nucleus. The Two Blades Foundation (2Blades) has completed a non-exclusive license agreement with the Monsanto Company for access to the TAL Code technology for genome engineering in plants. The Transcription Activator Like (TAL) effector Code technology, discovered by Ulla Bonas, Jens Boch, Thomas Lahaye, and Sebastian Schornack at Martin-Luther University in Halle, Germany, is based on novel sequence-specific DNA-binding proteins that can be designed quickly and easily to recognize virtually any sequence of interest. Named Method of the Year in 2011 by the journal Nature Methods (9:1 doi:10.1038/nmeth.1852), the technology enables a number of highly useful tools to target specific loci in a genome and modulate the expression of genes. The application of these tools in plants will accelerate improvements in crop growth and development. The Two Blades Foundation holds exclusive rights for commercial uses of the technology in plants. "Having Monsanto, the world's largest seed company, put the TAL Code technology to use in their programs will further ensure its wide use and development," said 2Blades Chief Operating Officer Diana Horvath. 2Blades will gain access to Monsanto's improvements to the technology for use in 2Blades' humanitarian efforts in support of subsistence farming. The license agreement will aid Monsanto's mission to develop high quality products for sustainable agriculture through science-based solutions. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Nature Biotech - FLASH assembly of TALENs for high-throughput genome editing
Reyon et al. (2012) http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nbt.2170.html
Engineered transcription activator–like effector nucleases (TALENs) have shown promise as facile and broadly applicable genome editing tools. However, no publicly available high-throughput method for constructing TALENs has been published, and large-scale assessments of the success rate and targeting range of the technology remain lacking. Here we describe the fast ligation-based automatable solid-phase high-throughput (FLASH) system, a rapid and cost-effective method for large-scale assembly of TALENs. We tested 48 FLASH-assembled TALEN pairs in a human cell–based EGFP reporter system and found that all 48 possessed efficient gene-modification activities. We also used FLASH to assemble TALENs for 96 endogenous human genes implicated in cancer and/or epigenetic regulation and found that 84 pairs were able to efficiently introduce targeted alterations. Our results establish the robustness of TALEN technology and demonstrate that FLASH facilitates high-throughput genome editing at a scale not currently possible with other genome modification technologies. The method developed by Joung and his colleagues – called the FLASH (fast ligation-based automatable solid-phase high-throughput) system – assembles DNA fragments encoding a TALEN on a magnetic bead held in place by an external magnet, allowing automated construction by a liquid-handling robot of DNA that encodes as many as 96 TALENs in a single day at a cost of around $75 per TALEN. Joung's team also developed a manual version of FLASH that would allow labs without access to robotic equipment to construct up to 24 TALEN sequences a day. In their test of the system in human cells, the investigators found that FLASH-assembled TALENs were able to successfully induce breaks in 84 of 96 targeted genes known to be involved in cancer or in epigenetic regulation.
Nature Methods - How TAL effectors bind DNA
Monya Baker highlights two publications about TAL effector repeat domain.
A right handed super helix wraps itself along the major groove of DNA...One of the two variable amino acids makes a specific contact with a nucleotide in the DNA sense strand while the other stabilizes the contact between DNA and protein. Transcription Activator-Like Orthogonal Repressors (TALORs) are a new tool for scalable designer regulation of synthetic promoters. TALORS are a modification to customisable Transcription Activator-Like Effectors (TALEs) that binds core promoter regions to act as transcriptional repressors. 
Suggested by Tom Ellis
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