The availability of genome sequences of numerous organisms and the revolution brought about by genome editing tools (e.g., ZFNs, TALENs, and CRISPR/Cas9 or RGENs) has provided a breakthrough in introducing targeted genetic changes both to explore emergent phenotypes and to introduce new functionalities. However, the wider application of these tools in biology, agriculture, medicine, and biotechnology is limited by off-target mutation effects. In this review, we compare available methods for detecting, measuring, and analyzing off-target mutations. Furthermore, we particularly focus on CRISPR/Cas9 regarding various methods, tweaks, and software tools available to nullify off-target effects.
Keywords: CRISPR/Cas9; TALENs; ZFNs; genome editing; off-target; on-target; target specificity.
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