Targeted base editing in the plastid genome of Arabidopsis thaliana

Bacterial cytidine deaminase fused to the DNA binding domains of transcription activator-like effector nucleases was recently reported to transiently substitute a targeted C to a T in mitochondrial DNA of mammalian cultured cells¹. We applied this system to targeted base editing in the Arabidopsis thaliana plastid genome. The targeted Cs were homoplasmically substituted to Ts in some plantlets of the T₁ generation and the mutations were inherited by their offspring independently of their nuclear-introduced vectors.