TAL Effector Code 

A new paradigm for protein-DNA interaction has been discovered in bacterial pathogens of plants. These pathogens utilize proteins that function as eukaryotic transcription activators to effect the host environment.  These Transcription Activator Like (TAL) effectors use a novel protein motif with an extremely simple DNA recognition code.

The understanding of this code enables a number of highly useful tools, including designer TAL effectors (TALEs) for targeted gene activation or repression, targeted engineering of genomes to add, remove, or alter genes, and site-specific gene insertion, as depicted here:

Figures courtesy of Prof. Thomas Lahaye, Ludwig-Maximilians University

The robustness and versatility of TALEs and the TAL effector Code are exemplified in the rapidly growing list of publications linked here.