Genome-editing tool TALEN outperforms CRISPR-Cas9 in tightly packed DNA: study

CHICAGO, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Comparing the genome-editing tools CRISPR-Cas9 and TALEN, researchers at the University of Illinois (UI) found through experiments that TALEN is up to five times more efficient than CRISPR-Cas9 in parts of the genome, called heterochromatin, that are densely packed.

The researchers used single-molecule fluorescence microscopy to directly observe how the two genome-editing tools performed in living mammalian cells. Fluorescent-labeled tags enabled the researchers to measure how long it took CRISPR and TALEN to move along the DNA and to detect and cut target sites.