Precision and flexibility with TALEN gene editing

TALENs, or transcription activator-like (TAL) effector nucleases, are widely used for precise and efficient gene editing in live cells. Unlike CRISPR-Cas9 technology, TALENs can target any desired sequence within a genome, with no PAM site restrictions. Specifically, TALENs consist of a DNA binding domain linked to a specific effector domain (e.g., Fok1 nuclease). 

Our Invitrogen FlexCut TALEN mRNA pairs are an all-in-one solution to perform either knockout or knock-in genome editing. They are available in a convenient transfection-ready mRNA format to accelerate your gene editing experiments.

If you need TALEN design assistance, check out our Invitrogen TrueDesign Genome Editor software to easily design and order FlexCut TALEN mRNA pairs for your specific application. Simply identify your gene transcript and the type of edit you wish to make. The software compiles a list of products you’ll need for a successful edit which you can download in a comprehensive report or add directly to your cart.

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Why use TALEN gene editing

TALEN gene editing technology is useful when no suitable CRISPR PAM sites are available for your design. It may also be more efficient than CRISPR in editing hard-to-edit genomic regions such as heterochromatin [1]. In addition, TALENs have been shown to exhibit superior HDR efficiency due to closer proximity to the insertion site. 

FlexCut TALEN mRNA pairs provide unrestricted access to edit any locus in the genome and provide the efficiency and specificity needed for challenging genome editing experiments.

Diagram of a TALEN pair bound to a DNA molecule. Each TALEN has a DNA Binding Domain linked to Fok1 nuclease.
Bar graph showings that TALENs exhibit higher HDR efficiency than CRISPR for a single SNP in three genes

Figure 1. HDR efficiency for TALENs (red) and CRISPR (purple) for a single SNP in three genes. Three pairs of TALEN mRNAs were screened for cutting at –4, 0, and +4 bases from the desired edit for each single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP). The best-performing pair was used for editing. All CRISPR guide RNAs (gRNAs) that would result in a cut within 25 bases of the desired edit were screened along with the Cas9 protein. The best-performing gRNAs were used for editing. For these SNPs in these genes, TALENs achieved higher levels of HDR efficiency than CRISPR.

TALEN licensing

We have also secured rights to proprietary methods related to TALENs. For more information on TALEN licensing, please contact us at outlicensing@thermofisher.com.

TALEN ordering tools

TrueDesign Genome Editor

If you need assistance to generate TALEN pairs for your gene of interest, use our TrueDesign Genome Editor software for fast and easy design and ordering.


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FlexCut TALEN mRNA pairs

Use our online tool to order Invitrogen FlexCut TALEN mRNA pairs which provide unrestricted access to edit any locus in the genome and provide the efficiency and specificity needed for challenging genome editing experiments.

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References

  1. Jain S, Shukla S, Yang C, et al. TALEN outperforms Cas9 in editing heterochromatin target sites. Nat Commun. 2021: 12: 606.
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