TALEN-mediated genome engineering to generate targeted mice

Genetic mouse models are critical for biomedical research to understand gene function and pathophysiology. In the last years, the generation of genetic mouse models has been revolutionized by the emergence of transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs). TALENs are programmable, sequence-specific DNA-binding proteins fused to a non-specific endonuclease domain used as powerful tools for site-specific induction of DNA double-strand breaks. These result in disruption of the gene product of the targeted locus by mutations induced during repair by error-prone non-homologous end-joining. Alternatively, these DNA double-strand breaks can be exploited to integrate a user-defined sequence by homologous recombination if an appropriate repair plasmid is provided. In this review, we highlight the major technological improvements for genome editing in murine oocytes which have been achieved using TALENs, discuss current limitations of the technology, suggest strategies to broadly apply TALENs, and describe possible future directions to facilitate gene editing in murine oocytes.