Enhancing zinc-finger-nuclease activity with improved obligate heterodimeric architectures

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Abstract
Identification of residues critical for dimerization of the Fok1 nuclease domain of zinc-finger nucleases permits rational design of enzymes with improved cleavage activity and retained obligate heterodimerization. Also in this issue, Sander et al. report context-dependent assembly (CoDA), a simple method for designing zinc-finger nucleases. Zinc-finger nucleases (ZFNs) drive efficient genome editing by introducing a double-strand break into the targeted gene. Cleavage is induced when two custom-designed ZFNs heterodimerize upon binding DNA to form a catalytically active nuclease complex. The importance of this dimerization event for subsequent cleavage activity has stimulated efforts to engineer the nuclease interface to prevent undesired homodimerization. Here we report the development and application of a yeast-based selection system designed to functionally interrogate the ZFN dimer interface. We identified critical residues involved in dimerization through the isolation of cold-sensitive nuclease domains. We used these residues to engineer ZFNs that have superior cleavage activity while suppressing homodimerization. The improvements were portable to orthogonal domains, allowing the concomitant and independent cleavage of two loci using two different ZFN pairs. These ZFN architectures provide a general means for obtaining highly efficient and specific genome modification.