Advances in Nucleases Used for Genome Editing

Genome editing is an exciting technology that allows for specific manipulation of complex genomes. While the original tools for genome manipulation had low efficiencies, genome editing tools discovered in the past fifteen years have been widely studied and great efforts have been required to improve their efficiency. This article summarizes how Zinc Finger Nuclease (ZFN), Transcription Activator-Like Effector Nuclease (TALEN) and Clustered Regularly Interspaced Palindromic Repeat (CRISPR)/Cas9 nucleases work, as well as the most meaningful advances achieved in the development of these technologies.