Prime editing creates a novel dimension of plant precise genome editing

Abstract

The precise genome editing has not been well established in plants, largely because of the limited frequency of homology recombination and the delivery barrier of donor templates. Recently, Dr. Caixia Gao's group from the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, developed a series of plant prime editors (PPEs), which mediats the prime editing in the genomes of rice and wheat. The PPE systems are able to generate all 12 kinds of programmable base substitutions, as well desired multiplex nucleotide substitutions and small deletions or insertions without DNA double-strand breaks, thus providing versatile tools for precise plant genome editing. Herein, we introduce the structure and the editing capacity of the PPEs. The attemp on efficiency enhancements of PPEs and other PPEs are also discussed, which may provide a reference for appropriate application of PPEs in plants and also for continuous optimization of the editing tools.