Nucleoside deaminases: the key players in base editing toolkit

Abstract

The development of nucleoside deaminase-containing base editors realized targeted single base change with high efficiency and precision. Such nucleoside deaminases include adenosine and cytidine deaminases, which can catalyze adenosine-to-inosine (A-to-I) and cytidine-to-uridine (C-to-U) conversion respectively. These nucleoside deaminases are under the spotlight because of their vast application potential in gene editing. Recent advances in the engineering of current nucleoside deaminases and the discovery of new nucleoside deaminases greatly broaden the application scope and improve the editing specificity of base editors. In this review, we cover current knowledge about the deaminases used in base editors, including their key structural features, working mechanisms, optimization, and evolution.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Nucleoside deaminase / Base editors

Acknowledgements

This work is supported by National Key Research and Development Program National Key R&D Program of China (2023YFC3403400, 2018YFA0801401 and 2019YFA0802804), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32371514 and 32070170), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the People’s Republic of China (NK2022010207), Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission (21JC1404600 and 23ZR1442500), Program of Shanghai Academic/Technology Research Leader (23XD1422500) and Shanghai Frontiers Science Center for Biomacromolecules and Precision Medicine, ShanghaiTech University.

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2023 The Author(s)