Adenine base editors catalyze cytosine conversions in human cells.

Kim, Heon Seok; Jeong, You Kyeong; Hur, Junho K; Kim, Jin-Soo; Bae, Sangsu · Nat Biotechnol · 2019

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Adenine base editors comprise an adenosine deaminase, evolved in vitro, and a Cas9 nickase. Here, we show that in addition to converting adenine to guanine, adenine base editors also convert cytosine to guanine or thymine in a narrow editing window (positions 5-7) and in a confined TC*N sequence context. Adenine base editor-induced cytosine substitutions occur independently of adenosine conversions with an efficiency of up to 11.2% and reduce the number of suitable targeting sites for high-specificity base editing.

Medical subject headings