Characterization and development of a plastid genome base editor, ptpTALECD

The modification of photosynthesis-related genes in plastid genomes may improve crop yields. Recently, we reported that a plastid-targeting base editor named ptpTALECD, in which a cytidine deaminase DddA functions as the catalytic domain, can homoplasmically substitute a targeted C to T in plastid genomes of Arabidopsis thaliana. However, some target Cs were not substituted. In addition, although ptpTALECD could substitute Cs on the 3' side of T and A, it was unclear whether it could also substitute Cs on the 3' side of G and C. In this study, we identified the preferential positions of the substituted Cs in ptpTALECD-targeting sequences in the Arabidopsis plastid genome. We also found that ptpTALECD could substitute Cs on the 3' side of all four bases in plastid genomes of Arabidopsis. More recently, a base editor containing an improved version of DddA (DddA11) was reported to substitute Cs more efficiently, and to substitute Cs on the 3' side of more varieties of bases in human mitochondrial genomes than a base editor containing DddA. Here, we also show that ptpTALECD_v2, in which a modified version of DddA11 functions as the catalytic domain, more frequently substituted Cs than ptpTALECD in the Arabidopsis plastid genome. We also found that ptpTALECD_v2 tended to substitute Cs at more positions than ptpTALECD. Our results reveal that ptpTALECD can cause a greater variety of codon changes and amino acid substitutions than previously thought, and that ptpTALECD and ptpTALECD_v2 are useful tools for the targeted base editing of plastid genomes.