TALE nucleases: tailored genome engineering made easy

Custom-made designer nucleases have evolved into an indispensable platform to precisely alter complex genomes for basic research, biotechnology, synthetic biology, or human gene therapy. In this review we describe how transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs) have rapidly developed into a chief technology for targeted genome editing in different model organisms as well as human stem cells. We summarize the technological background and provide an overview of the current state-of-the-art of TALENs with regard to activity and specificity of these nucleases for targeted genome engineering.