Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

BASE EDITING

Off-target effects and the solution

Nature Plants volume 5, pages 341–342 (2019)Cite this article

Subjects

Adenine base editors (ABEs) and cytosine base editors (CBEs) are powerful tools for targeted base conversions, but their editing specificities are largely unknown. Now, two reports demonstrate that ABEs are highly specific, but BE3-type CBEs tend to generate genome-wide off-target single nucleotide variations.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Targeting specificity of base editors.

References

  1. Chen, K., Wang, Y., Zhang, R., Zhang, H. & Gao, C. Annu. Rev. Plant Biol. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-arplant-050718-100049 (2019).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Knott, G. J. & Doudna, J. A. Science 361, 866–869 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Ma, X., Zhu, Q., Chen, Y. & Liu, Y. G. Mol. Plant 9, 961–974 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Cox, D. B., Platt, R. J. & Zhang, F. Nat. Med. 21, 121–131 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Komor, A. C., Kim, Y. B., Packer, M. S., Zuris, J. A. & Liu, D. R. Nature 533, 420–424 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Gaudelli, N. M. et al. Nature 551, 464–471 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Lu, Y. & Zhu, J. K. Mol. Plant 10, 523–525 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Zong, Y. et al. Nat. Biotechnol. 35, 438–440 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Akcakaya, P. et al. Nature 561, 416–419 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Tang, X. et al. Genome Biol. 19, 84 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Li, J. et al. Plant Biotechnol. J. https://doi.org/10.1111/pbi.13020 (2018).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  12. Jin, S. et al. Science https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaw7166 (2019).

  13. Zuo, E. et al. Science https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aav9973 (2019).

  14. Harris, R. S., Petersen-Mahrt, S. K. & Neuberger, M. S. Mol. Cell 10, 1247–1253 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Radany, E. H. et al. Mutat. Res. 461, 41–58 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Subtropical Agro-Bioresources, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, China

    Jintao Tang, Letian Chen & Yao-Guang Liu

  2. Key Laboratory of Plant Functional Genomics and Biotechnology of Guangdong Provincial Higher Education Institutions, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, China

    Jintao Tang, Letian Chen & Yao-Guang Liu

  3. College of Life Sciences, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, China

    Jintao Tang, Letian Chen & Yao-Guang Liu

Authors
  1. Jintao Tang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Letian Chen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Yao-Guang Liu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yao-Guang Liu.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Tang, J., Chen, L. & Liu, YG. Off-target effects and the solution. Nat. Plants 5, 341–342 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-019-0406-z

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-019-0406-z

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing: Translational Research

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Translational Research newsletter — top stories in biotechnology, drug discovery and pharma.

Get what matters in translational research, free to your inbox weekly. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Translational Research