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Hereditas(Beijing) ›› 2022, Vol. 44 ›› Issue (11): 993-1008.doi: 10.16288/j.yczz.22-156

• Review • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Prime editing: a search and replace tool with versatile base changes

Yao Liu(), Xianhui Zhou, Shuhong Huang, Xiaolong Wang()   

  1. College of Animal Science and Technology/International Joint Research Center of Animal Bio-breeding, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs/Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Animal Genetic Breeding and Reproduction, Northwest A & F University, Yangling 712100, China
  • Received:2022-07-23 Revised:2022-09-01 Online:2022-11-20 Published:2022-09-16
  • Contact: Wang Xiaolong E-mail:yaoliu@nwafu.edu.cn;xiaolongwang@nwafu.edu.cn
  • Supported by:
    the National Natural Science Foundation of China(31972526);the National Natural Science Foundation of China(32161143010)

Abstract:

Prime editing is a newly developed CRISPR/Cas system-based genome editing technique. The effector of prime editor (PE) is termed PE2, which is generated by fusing a reverse transcriptase (RT) with a Cas9 H840A nickase. The guide RNA of PE is termed prime editing guide RNA (pegRNA), which consists of a single guide RNA (sgRNA) with a 3′ extension containing the RT template (RTT) and primer binding site (PBS). PE can install all 12 types of point mutations, small insertions and deletions and combinations thereof. Since its emergence in 2019, with the high versatility and specificity, PE has been applied to many living organisms, including animals, plants and bacteria. This led to many explorations of PE on gene therapy and genetic improvement in agriculture. In this review, we systematically describe the development, characteristics, optimizations, applications and security of PE. In addition, we discuss the future applications of PE. We expect that this review will help researchers to grasp and better use PE.

Key words: prime editor, CRISPR/Cas9, optimization, application