Table 1 Target site guidelines for TALE design.

From: Context influences on TALE–DNA binding revealed by quantitative profiling

Target site guideline

Rationale

Target A runs

The NI repeat is more specific with NI as its N- or C- terminal neighbour

Avoid 3′ A, C or G

The NI, HD and NN repeats are less specific at the C-terminal end

Avoid T in first position

Both the 5′ T preference and the NG repeat are less specific if the first repeat is NG

Use the SIFTED web tool to identify off-targets

The web tool incorporates all context effects and can evaluate effective specificity in the genome.

  1. SIFTED, Specificity Inference for TAL-Effector Design; TALE, transcription activator-like effector.
  2. The observed context effects were used to create simple guidelines to incorporate when designing TALEs. However, we recommend using the SIFTED web tool to predict specificity and locate potential off-target sites when designing a TALE protein to target a genomic region.
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